What Do You Got?
by HidingLight
Summary: What do you got? As the group struggles to navigate the murky waters of career vs relationships, the Gibbs' teams realize that what they really have is something worth holding on to for dear life. A sequel to Out of the Basement and As It Seems. Tony/Gibbs Abby/McGee Dorneget/Elly (OC) Ziva/Dion (OC) SLASH!
1. Chapter 1

**What Do You Got?**

 _Another sequel! I'm not sure what to tell you- this universe owns my soul! This story will be posted slowly, though more quickly than the second half of As It Seems. Life is very different now, and I have a lot more time. On that note, if you haven't read the first two stories in the series, you won't get this one at all._

 _Warning: Y'all know I go for the feels. Not in this chapter, but in future chapters, there will be some tough subjects touched upon. Expect a rollercoaster!_

 _Much love, and I'm glad you're thinking about taking this adventure with me!_

 **Chapter 1**

Tony leaned back against the credenza in the conference room while Ziva, Parke, Ned and Sommers made their way out. That left Jethro, Tim, and Elly sitting at the conference table. Tony's arms were crossed against his chest and his feet at his ankles as he ground his teeth. Sommers had been grating on his nerves since his first day last week, but what he'd just witnessed was ridiculous. By the look on Jethro's face he knew that if they weren't about to leave for their honeymoon the young probie would already be packing up his desk.

The tension in the room was slowly bleeding off as they sat in silence until they were all sure that the rest of their teammates, especially Sommers, were safely away from the door. Elly was the first to speak, though only after a deep sigh.

"Well, that was lovely."

Tony shook his head and sat next to his agent, slapping McGee in the back of the head as he did so. "Get your probie under control, McGeek!"

Tim shook his head, and the look on his face showed more anger than Tony was used to seeing from him. "If I try to control him at this point I'm going to be doing it with my gun. I'm done with him, Boss," he added as he looked at Jethro.

"You'll only have to put up with him for the next nine days. I promised Vance he'd last through the honeymoon. Try not to kill him. If one of us gets that pleasure, I'd prefer it be me."

"I'm not making any promises, Boss."

"That's your _fifth_ reject! You might as well just start pulling names from a hat." Tony sighed and bent his head to run his hands through his hair, elbows on the table. He looked up and shook his head as his eyes met Jethro's. "Sorry. It's just… _that_ was uncalled for. I'm not expecting everyone to buy first class tickets to the Gibbs family train, but _his_ smart ass comments are going to get _me_ fired."

"We can't both get fired. We have a daughter to raise," Jethro said calmly, but the way his pencil snapped in his hands told a different story was brewing underneath the unusually coolheaded exterior.

"Just say the word, Boss," Elly said as he looked from the undeservingly mutilated pencil to Tony's face. "We can make his life a living hell while you're gone so that he leaves on his own accord."

Tim raised an eyebrow at him. "I inherited Tony's bottle of superglue."

"I've got his foghorn."

"Hey!" Tony exclaimed. "I was wondering where that went!"

"Childish pranks aren't going to earn anyone any points," Jethro said with a glance for each man across the table.

"Well, Boss, if you would look the other way, I'm sure we could _… take care of things_ … in a more adult manner." Tim looked at the door in thought.

"Don't worry, McGee. He's going to fall on his own face soon enough."

"He's right," Tony agreed, though secretly he wanted to find out just how devious Tim had become after his years of tutelage. "Let's just talk through the plan one more time to make sure everything is covered."

The four opened their notebooks and folders and started running through the list. Elly and Tim were going to run their teams separately for smalltime cases, but if a bigger issue came about, they were going to team up. Tim was in charge at that point. If anything were to happen to require assistance, Elly would direct his questions to Tim. Meanwhile there were cold cases for Ziva, Parke, and Dorney to work up the psych profiles on. Those profiles would be plugged into the cold case database that Elly and Tim were going to work on. Sommers had the task of going through cold cases and transcribing their case notes into the database.

It was that task that had him making lewd comments to his teammates about how he's "going to be stuck typing behind a desk for a week so their bosses could go fuck". He already didn't have any friends at the table, but that statement had earned him the teams' total and utter disrespect, not to mention the verbal beat down he got from Parke who finally snapped under his current overwhelming mound of stress.

Tony had (barely) kept his mouth shut because he was too angry to say anything that wouldn't get him canned or worse. Besides, Parke had done a damn good job of summing up what every one of them had been thinking at that moment. Tony's favorite part was the phrase "inflated egotistical narcissistic homophobic idiot". The natural flow and bitter flourish with which it rolled off of Parke's educated palette sent a streak of pride and appreciation through him for the younger man. The ice cold glare that Jethro was giving Sommers long after the room went silent only amplified how deep in shit the probie was, and Ziva's sudden interest in how sharp her knife was didn't go unnoticed either.

"I think that covers it. We just have to drop off the confirmed plan on Vance's desk." Tony reached for his phone as it rang. "Special Agent Gibbs," he answered.

Elly noticed the slight smirk that crossed Jethro's lips at Tony answering the phone with his new last name. He hid his grin as he pulled his own phone from his pocket to check the time. He saw a series of texts in a group chat that he, Ned, Greg, Tim, Ziva, Abby and Jimmy were in. He was anxious to leave and read them. He looked up to try to figure out if they were dismissed, and he saw a strange look on Tony's face. It was a mix of stunned disgust with a nice helping of confusion.

"What do you mean he- _yeah_?" Tony looked at Jethro who was looking back at him on high alert after that. "Thanks for letting me know, Tom. And I know it's your job, but thanks for not telling him about things. Yeah… okay. I will deal with this when I get back from my honeymoon. Yeah. Thanks."

"What's going on?" Tim asked after unabashedly listening in on the conversation.

"Was that your lawyer?" Jethro asked, eyes narrowed in concern.

"Yeah. And he _was_ Senior's lawyer, but not after the fight they just had because he wouldn't talk to Senior about me. Apparently Dad went to the old apartment and found out I don't live there anymore. He then came here and asked to see Agent DiNozzo. The new guy down there must not know my… uh, I guess maiden name? Huh. Sounds weird. Former name? Anyway, he told him there's no Agent DiNozzo here, and Dad threw a fit demanding to see _you_ , and they escorted him off the property because he was belligerent with them. That's when he called Tom."

Jethro grabbed his phone and grimaced at the little blinking light that meant he had a voicemail waiting. "I hate this damned phone," he growled quietly. "I keep putting it on silent when I mean to put it on vibrate."

Tony gave him an endearing smile and a shake of his head. "Yeah, but you love getting videos and pictures of Amira on it. Fair trade."

Jethro fixed the settings, and then tossed it on the table. "He called me too, but didn't leave a voicemail. Did Tom say what he wanted?" he asked quietly.

Elly tried not to look at Tim, and Tim tried not to look at Elly. They just casually sat in and listened, both of them knowing they should really be backing out and giving the two men privacy, but neither being strong enough to do so in the face of good gossip. Not to mention they both had heard stories about the true Anthony DiNozzo No-Longer-Senior that made Tony's life hell by now, and they both wanted to be aware of any danger.

"He didn't tell Tom. He just said he seemed angry and desperate."

"Dangerous combination," Elly said cautiously. Tony nodded.

"Why don't I do a quick run of his financials," Tim suggested. "We'll see if there are any red flags there."

Jethro raised an approving eyebrow at Tim before looking to Tony to get his take on the idea. Tony sighed and stood up.

"Sure. Why not?"

"Tony, you should call Sierra and tell her to get Amira out of the house before he comes looking for me at home."

The way Tony blanched and started frantically working his phone earned a concerned glance between Tim and Elly.

"Have her bring her here," Tim said. "Abby and I were going to have her tonight anyway."

Tony nodded. "Sierra?" he said, trying not to sound panicked and failing.

"Hey Tony!"

Tony could hear Amira shout "Daddy!" in the background.

"Hey, I need for you to get Amira's things for tonight and leave the house."

Sierra felt her heart race. She had been trained by Tony and Jethro of all the possibly urgent situations they could find themselves in as the family of federal agents, and this was the first time that they'd pulled the trigger. She nodded as she swallowed, and then realized Tony couldn't see her.

"Of course," she said. "Where are we going?"

"NCIS. We'll be waiting for you."

"We'll be there soon!" She put on her practiced happy voice and announced to Amira that they were leaving right now to go see her daddies. Amira was overjoyed, but Sierra thought she was going to crawl out of her skin. She grabbed the pre-packed backpack by the couch that was ready for Amira to take to Tim and Abby's, and ran to the fridge for a blue Gatorade. She knew it would motivate Amira who was sliding on her sandals by the front door, her dark bear under one arm.

"Are you ready?" she asked, trying to sound excited rather than terrified.

"Yeah! Let's go!" Amira jumped a couple of times while she waited for Sierra to grab her jacket off the coatrack and then turned to go out the front door. She turned to lock the door behind her, her hands barely able to get the key in the deadbolt, but finally hearing it thunk.

They got buckled into the car in record time, and backed out of the driveway. She was driving down the street when a taxi started coming the opposite direction. She waited at the stop sign to see the car pull into the driveway she had just vacated. She ignored Amira's plea for the Gatorade as she pealed out of the street, and took off for the Beltway.

Meanwhile the four men had rushed down to the bullpen. Jethro moved to lean over Tim as they whispered very softly about the semi-legal search they were conducting on Senior's financials. Tony went to stand behind Elly as he started pulling up property records and anything else he could get his hands on that pertained to the older man. Elly pointed to a couple of things and Tony shrugged with a grim frown. There was a house being foreclosed on in Newport News, and there was a boat that the bank was repossessing.

Tim and Jethro both looked up at the same time meeting Tony's eyes from across the room. Tony made a motion to send it to Elly's desk. Tim nodded, and the two men got up to come over and stand with Tony. The rest of the bullpen was watching them with keen interest, including Sommers. Tony looked across the room to see him staring back. He gave him his own flourishing Gibbs glare, and the kid gave him a smart ass look in return. Tony mouthed " _Mind your own business!"_ to him, and looked down to see what Elly was pulling up.

There were a number of somewhat large withdrawals from Senior's main account over the past month, essentially draining him of close to $35,000. It probably wouldn't have been enough to save him from the foreclosure or the repossession, but he knew his dad always kept a decent balance in his savings to have some flaunt cash for when he needed to seal a deal.

"Where did those charges originate?" he asked Elly quietly who was already tracing the numbers back. He shook his head as the locations began plotting on a map.

"They're all over. Probably dummy corporations set up for someone to launder money. Looks like someone hacked his account, and whoever it was has been bleeding him out for the past three weeks. Do you want me to follow the trail?"

"No," Tony said, earning a look from him. "If my father thinks I did this, and he presses the issue, I can't have my team investigating it. It looks suspicious. I don't want you anywhere close to this. Back out."

Elly backed out, covering his tracks. Tim watched in pride as Elly employed techniques he had taught him as well as a couple of tricks of his own.

"Your lead, Tony. How do we play this?" Jethro asked.

"We don't right now. You and I are going to go on our honeymoon like nothing has happened. Our daughter is going to spend the week with our family, and we'll handle it when we get back if he's still in town. I meant what I said about not letting him into our lives. I won't have him ruining something so special for us."

Jethro put his hand on Tony's shoulder, an innocent sign of affection that had come to mean more to them. He understood what Tony was trying to do, but he was worried about letting the issue fester.

"I'm going to head downstairs. Sierra and Amira should be here soon." Jethro let go of Tony's shoulder, and turned to move from behind Elly's desk.

"I'll go with you. Alex is probably down there already fawning over Amira." He smiled at Jethro as he came out from around the desk.

"Do you want me to drop off the plan with Vance, Boss?" McGee asked.

"It's on my desk, McGee" Jethro said over his shoulder as he and Tony took to the stairwell together.

They came around the blind bend, and stopped for a quick kiss. It was short, but it was a custom that brought them comfort, and Tony desperately needed that right now. They looked deep into each other's eyes, and Tony saw all he needed to see there. Jethro's eyes told him that they would get through this together, and that's all that Tony needed to know.

"I love you," Tony whispered.

"I love you, too," Jethro said with a soft smile.

They continued down the steps and pushed through the door into the main foyer. Sierra and Amira were waiting at the front desk for them. As predicted, Alex was gleefully attending to Amira. Both men looked past them at the young woman standing stiffly at the counter. She was tugging on the end of her ponytail that hung over her shoulder, and chewed her bottom lip.

Squeals of "Daddies!" came from Amira as she ran across the marble floors to Tony and Jethro. They both smiled broadly, and squatted down to catch the wide-armed hug from their little girl. She rested her head on both of their arms at the same time while they simultaneously kissed the top of her head. They chuckled at the unison and then stood up, Tony scooping up Amira while nodding at Jethro to attend to the stressed-out Sierra.

Jethro headed for her and stood closely so that they could talk without Amira hearing. He could hear Tony talking to Amira behind them so that she was distracted from the conversation.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah… yeah. I am now that we're here. I may have broken about twenty traffic laws on the way here though. I had just pulled out of the driveway, and was down at the corner when someone showed up at the house in a taxi. Once I saw them pull up, I took off. What's going on?" The adrenaline was wearing off and she started shaking. Jethro looked over his shoulder and motioned to take Amira upstairs. Tony got the point easily and turned to head for the elevator. Jethro turned back to Sierra.

"Why don't we go see Ducky?" he said, reaching to take Amira's pack and bear. "We'll let him make you some tea, and we'll have a talk." She nodded, and he put his arm around her shoulder as he led her to the stairwell just as the elevator doors closed on Tony and Amira.

A couple of minutes later they were entering autopsy, and Ducky greeted them. "Ah! Jethro! Sierra!" Once he took a good look at Sierra's frazzled demeanor, his enthusiasm changed. "Oh, my dear, please sit. What has you so shaken?" Jethro pulled up a stool to sit with the two at Ducky's desk. Ducky began pouring a cup of tea for the young lady, and sat waiting for an explanation.

Sierra took a sip, and looked at Jethro for answers.

"Tony received a call from his lawyer about half an hour ago stating that his father, we know him as Senior," he added for Sierra's benefit, "had called his office looking for information on Tony's whereabouts. He'd been to Tony's old apartment to find it was no longer his. He then came here, but that new guy at the front gate didn't know Tony's last name used to be DiNozzo, so he couldn't find him on the list, and when he didn't, Senior blew and demanded to see me. Based on his outburst, the guards escorted him off the premises. We knew that the next place he'd come looking was at the house. We're not sure what has him so damn up in arms, but we sure as hell weren't going to leave you and Amira to find out the hard way."

Sierra took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a minute. "Oh, thank God. I thought it was some murderer after us."

Jethro and Ducky exchanged a look, and then Jethro reached out to lay a comforting hand on Sierra's arm. He wasn't sure how to explain Senior. That was more of Tony's story to tell, but he knew he had to convey how much they didn't want Senior to be in their lives.

"Tony's dad isn't a very good guy," he started. He sighed as he thought about all of the things Tony had told him, and then shook his head, taking his hand back from Sierra's shoulder. "He was very emotionally abusive to Tony growing up, and though we're not positive, we think he may have been physically abusive to Tony's mom. She killed herself when Tony was young, and her marriage is believed to be a big part of that."

Sierra chewed her lower lip and nodded at Jethro with sad eyes.

"He's also a con man, and has stolen large amounts of money from Tony by presenting himself as Tony DiNozzo, conveniently leaving off whether or not that's Senior or Junior. He's been linked to more than one NCIS investigation. He kicked Tony out of his life when he caught him making out with a guy in high school. And with all that, he's a charmer with the women, has been married about half a dozen times, and tries to sweet talk himself out of anything possible. It's a game to him; a very sadistic, lucrative game."

"I take it this means his dad doesn't know the two of you are married," Sierra said slowly, the situation dawning on her.

"No, and he doesn't know, and will _never know,_ anything about Amira if we have our way."

Sierra got a chill down her back at the tone in Jethro's voice, and her arm hairs stood on end. "I just imagined him walking into the living room and seeing the photos on the mantel."

Jethro thought about the extra-large print hanging above the fire place of the photo of him and Tony pouring their cylinders of colored water into the bowl at their wedding, with Amira standing between them looking like an angel overseeing the transformation of blue and green water to teal. To the left of it was a somewhat smaller picture of the three of them in front of the minister as they vowed to take care of each other and Amira. To the right was a photo from behind of Tony and Jethro sitting on a bench at sunset as they looked out at the water. Tony's head was leaning on Jethro, and Jethro's arm was around the back of the bench and Tony's shoulder. Jethro had leaned in to kiss the top of Tony's head briefly, and the photographer had snapped the shot.

Everything sacred about his life was exposed on the mantel. The thought of Senior laying eyes on any of it made him sick to his stomach. It left a vile taste in his mouth, and made him feel violated.

"Do I have to worry about him coming back?" Sierra asked. For all of her attention to the family's emotional wellbeing, she was very pragmatic when she had to be.

Jethro nodded his head reluctantly. "I doubt he's going to let this rest. Tony said that he'll handle it when we get back from Italy, but that depends on whether or not Senior is still around. If he can't find him, he can't address the issue, and Senior isn't known for sticking around long."

"He is, unfortunately, known for coming around at the most unexpected, and often most inconvenient, of times," Ducky said sadly.

"Do you think he would hurt Amira or me if he had the opportunity?" Sierra asked.

"No," Jethro said, but with a sigh had to admit the unknown. "But if he is as desperate and angry as Tom told Tony he'd been acting, I don't know for sure."

"Then Tony needs to address this before I can stay at the house with Amira alone again," Sierra said matter-of-factly.

"Understood," Jethro said. As Sierra had been inserted into their lives, he found it comforting to find that she had a backbone to go along with all of her compassion. She wasn't the type to accept anyone putting her in an uncomfortable situation, especially not one that could be addressed.

The first day she sat down with Jethro and Tony at the house, before they signed the contract with her, they talked extensively about the possible dangers of taking care of the daughter of two federal agents. They talked about how important it was for her to follow their directions when they called and told her to get out, to run.

Her questions showed that she truly understood the dangers of the situation, and the scenarios she presented were on point. There was a negotiation though- if she were going to accept the contract, she needed to learn some form of defense. They both agreed that was fair. She started taking karate at the same school Amira had started lessons at. She also had started spending some time with Jethro at the range, and they had left a small pistol in a secret drawer of the new credenza Jethro had spent the last month building. It would have to be pulled from the wall to be discovered. He knew that was only a temporary solution until Amira was old enough to pull it away from the wall on her own, but for now, they all felt better for it.

"Is there somewhere else you would be comfortable watching Amira this week?"

"She's welcome at my place," she said. "If you're comfortable with that. My complex has a pool."

"I'm fine with that. I'm sure Tony would be too. You know Amira will love to spend time in the pool."

"If someone can grab her bathing suits from the house this weekend so that she has them when I pick her up Monday morning from NCIS, that would be great."

"We can make that happen. We'll gather some groceries, too. Are you feeling better?" he asked her.

She nodded and took a deep breath. "Much. I feel like this was a dry run for anything bigger that might come our way. I know what to expect now about how I will feel and what I will do. There was like, this initial panic when Tony told me we had to go, and my heart stopped for a moment as it registered, but then it was like I was on autopilot. It didn't really sink in until we were safe and sound in the lobby with Alex. That's when I really felt it all hit me."

"That's a perfectly natural response," Ducky said encouragingly. "You have a wonderful protective instinct. Jethro and Tony have chosen an ideal complement to entrust Amira to."

That made Sierra smile and bow her head a little to look at her hands for a moment. She raised it quickly though, and murmured her thanks to Ducky, her cheeks turning rosy.

"Are you good to drive?" Jethro asked her as he got to his feet and moved his stool back to where he pulled it from. He picked up Amira's things, but watched Sierra's body language.

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine."

"Okay. I've got to get back upstairs. We'll get McGee to grab her swimsuits and food this weekend."

"Thanks," Sierra said as she got to her feet.

"Why don't you finish your tea? You don't have to be anywhere yet, do you?" Jethro said, seeing Ducky raise an eyebrow behind her. He knew that Sierra and Ducky had struck up quite a few deep discussions on child psychology since they'd met. He hoped that Ducky would ask her about how she was really feeling being in this position, and his friend, thankfully, read his mind.

The two watched Jethro leave and board the elevator, and Ducky wasted no time getting down to the questions.

"Sierra, I feel I must ask you how you're feeling about continuing to care for Amira now that you've had a taste of what the job is going to really entail."

Sierra smirked, and picked up her tea cup. "Jethro left me here so you could get to the heart of the matter, didn't he?" She sipped as she watched Ducky smile.

"Of course he did," Ducky said, picking up his own tea cup. "I must say, his tenderness with you, and his confidence in you, says volumes that you may not yet comprehend. You are very important to him to be treated with such care."

"You know," Sierra started, sitting her cup back down and rearranging herself so she was sitting cross-legged in the chair she'd chosen. "I don't think I could ever find another family like them to work with. They are professional when they have to be, but they are… well they're so _warm_ , Dr. Mallard. I mean, they treat me like I'm a part of the family. Since my mom died… well, I've got no one. I'd grown to be close to the family I worked with before the Gibbses, but it wasn't familial. It was how you treat work-related friends. You know that you're just one major life change away from losing contact. And that's what happened. When they had Joey, and he was going to need so much care, I was suddenly expendable. Regretfully so, I'd like to think for all of us, but in a matter of days… I was gone."

Ducky thought for a long moment about how to proceed. "Anthony and Jethro have always had a way of building their family from the makeshift pieces around them. It's been the biggest gift for all of them. Jethro's Marine history instilled in him the need for loyalty to a strong team. He was alone for a long time after his partner and mentor retired. Then Anthony came along, and… somehow he gave him that back. He gave him the opportunity to have that strong, close team to work with again. And for Jethro, that was all he could accept. He couldn't deal with another family. Not yet. But he could deal with another team that he could work with, become loyal to and to have them become loyal to him. That was even more powerful in some ways back then than a family. Tony gave him that again.

"Jethro started letting people into that team, critically identifying people who were worthy, and grooming them to fit. I was so worried when we lost poor Caitlyn- oh, forgive me dear. You don't need to hear about that."

"No! Please! Go ahead. I find their past fascinating! It helps me understand who they are now." Sierra was captivated by Ducky's storytelling on a typical day. Hearing him disclose so much of her employers' pasts was incredibly intriguing.

"Well, Caitlyn was formerly with the Secret Service. When things went awry for her there, Jethro hired her to be a part of his team. He saw something in her. She and Anthony bickered like brother and sister, and I believe that's when the family-feel of the team really began. They could be vicious with one another, throwing barbs that would truly hurt, but somehow they still cared very much for one another.

"Then Timothy started helping on cases from Norfolk, and eventually was asked to help in person on a few. He and Abigail bonded immediately. It wasn't long until he had proven he could hold his own against Tony, Caitlyn, and even Jethro despite being very different from all of them. He moved here to become a permanent fixture on the team. He and Anthony had what could only be described as a case of sibling rivalry, but eventually, Timothy realized that underneath Anthony's playful exterior was a loyal brother. It was only then that he really looked up to Anthony's skills as an investigator."

"What about Ziva?" Sierra asked as Ducky poured her another cup of tea.

"Ah, yes. Our Ziva. After Caitlyn passed, the seat went cold for quite some time. The family had been complete. Though not for very long, it had been whole. The idea of replacing a member of your family is incomprehensible. It was so much harder than replacing a member of a team. She'd meant too much. But Ziva joined us when her demons crossed paths with our demons. You see, it was her half-brother, Ari, that killed Caitlyn. He too was a member of the Israeli Mossad, but had gone rogue, and their father, the head of the organization, sent Ziva to take care of her brother."

"Take… _care of_?" Sierra asked, her jaw dropping.

"Yes, my dear. She killed him before he could kill Jethro." He intentionally left out the part about it happening in the basement of the house in which Sierra was working.

"Poor Ziva! I'd have never gone back to Israel again either!"

"But she did! And soon she was sent _back_ to NCIS by Mossad as an attaché of sorts. Her loyalty had been tentatively won by her protection of Jethro, at least to him. She had to earn it from everyone else. But she did. She developed a love for this team in the time she was with us. And we had developed a love for her as well. The time came when she had to choose between her loyalty to this family or her biological one though, and she chose her father. She stayed in Israel."

Sierra looked confused. "Then how is she on the team still?"

"It is rather sad, I'm afraid. Her father sent her on a mission that was almost certain death. She was infiltrating a Somalian terrorist compound, and she was captured."

"Damn," Sierra muttered, and sipped at her tea.

"Indeed." Ducky sighed at the memory. "Anthony had become especially close to Ziva while she was here. There were even rumors that they were romantically involved, and though they let that rumor flourish, sometimes even encouraging it, they were something so much more. Anthony was one of the first people that Ziva had let in in a long time.

"When he killed her former best friend and lover in order to protect her, she felt deeply betrayed. It was, I believe, why she chose to stay in Israel with her father when the time came. Anthony though had never stopped caring about her, and worried deeply when he didn't hear anything from her. Jethro and Timothy had also started to worry about her, and together they tracked her down. The three of them travelled to Somalia and saved her, taking the life of the terrorist cell's leader in the process."

"Wow," Sierra said, sitting back and crossing her arms. "What total badasses!"

Ducky chuckled, but turned somber. "Yes, well. Ziva had been prisoner for weeks. Tony and McGee suffered a taste of that themselves, though not nearly as much. And Ziva was rather protectively brought back to this team. It took a long time to heal the wounds and rebuild the trust.

"The entire dynamic of the team changed after that. They became a family again, this time forged on mutual respect. There was still a playfulness about them, but they all respected one another's abilities, took the time to learn each other's skillsets. They had all learned though that there was much more depth to all of them than _any_ of them had given each other credit for."

They were both silent for a long minute.

"That's a lot to absorb."

"And there's so much more. Knowing how Anthony and Jethro pined for each other for years in secret, how much Anthony gave up to remain on Jethro's team. Jethro's attempt to retire. And then there's Anthony's team and how they came to be, and their own story of how they became as close and included in the family. It's fairly tragic as well."

"Why are you trusting me with all of this information?"

"I tell you these things for a couple of reasons, my dear. First, because if you are thinking about letting yourself get emotionally attached to this family, you need to understand how they came to be. It was through great hardship and intense experiences that enhanced the bonds and embedded each of them in one another's lives.

"Second, if you want this life, you will most likely experience difficult times. I can promise you though, you won't experience them alone. These are some of the examples of the kinds of lengths these amazing people will go through for each other. They have earned their happiness. They have struggled together, and they have held one another protectively close. And they are coming to invite you into that inner circle. They will do the same for you.

"The last reason I tell you this is to warn you. My dear, please don't take this as a threat, but a _warning_. If you allow yourself to be pulled into this family, to be given that much trust and respect and even love, you dare not abuse it or do anything to lose it. Know that the expectation is that you will stand with them against all things. They will demand as much loyalty from you as they will give you. If you bail on them when they need you, you will not be given a second chance. They are out of second chances to give."

Sierra nodded slowly. She thought for a long minute while Ducky sipped his cuppa. "That's… that's a lot to think about."

"Yes, it is."

"So… I'm either all in, or I'm not in at all."

"You can still be a successful childcare giver to Amira without getting too close to the family. You have to make your decision though so that you can set the expectations of the relationships you're building. It's not going to be long before you're absorbed at a pace you won't be able to stop. You're becoming more essential daily, and your care today with Amira in the face of a rather nasty experience has won you Jethro's respect and appreciation. I wager it has won Anthony's as well."

Sierra looked around the room, and sat her cup down. She got to her feet with a deep breath. "I really appreciate you telling me all of this, Dr. Mallard. I need to think for a while. I'm glad I have the week to wrap my head around this."

Ducky nodded sagely. "Consider wisely. Only you know what's right for you and your life." He got to his feet and offered to show her to the exit.

Once she was in her car, Sierra put her head back against the seat and stared out the sunroof for a long time, the words Ducky saying going through her head as she considered her relationship to the Gibbs family.

************WDYG?***************

Elly waited until Tony and Jethro had made their way through the stairwell door and pulled out his phone. He looked to Ned and Parke to get the message across that he was going to text them what that was all about. He'd forgotten though that there was a stream of texts that had blown up his phone while he was in the conference room earlier. He scrolled up to the beginning of the conversation and started scanning it.

 _Ned: Whoa! How did they not just kill Sommers?_

 _Abby: What?! What did I miss?!_

 _Ned: Way to go Greg for putting him in his place. That was awesome!_

 _Abby: ! WHAT HAPPENED?!_

 _Jimmy: Man! I miss all the good stuff!_

 _Greg: I'm not putting up with that little shit's cocky ass attitude anymore._

 _Ned: Sommers got pissed because he's on data entry duty while the Gibbses are on their honeymoon. He said, and I quote, "You mean I'm stuck behind a damn desk for a week so these two can go fuck?"_

 _Abby: NO HE DIDN'T!_

 _Ned: And then Greg tore him a new one. What's the line you used on him Greg? What did you call him?_

 _Greg: Something about an egotistical homophobic idiot._

 _Abby: GO GREG!_

 _Jimmy: I've been dying to call him that for the past week._

 _Ziva: There was something about narcissism in there…_

 _Greg: Yeah, something._

 _Ziva: I was ready to castrate him, but I did not think that would go over well._

 _Greg: Yeah it would've._

 _Ned: Mmhmmm. I agree with Greg. We would've had your back on that one._

 _Greg: Still would. Or worse._

 _Jimmy: Somehow, I don't think Dr. Mallard would mind getting that call._

 _Abby: So, did Gibbs #1 get all glarey? What did Gibbs #2 do?_

 _Ned: We all just kind of stared at him like he was an idiot. I think it was more of what we didn't do, which is stand up to Greg for him._

 _Ziva: You would think he understood the mistake he made, but I do not believe he will ever learn._

 _Greg: People like Sommers don't care. They think of only themselves first. They think they can do no wrong._

 _Abby: So what are we going to do? Why is he still on the team?_

 _Ziva: I do not believe he will be on the team once our bosses return from Italy._

 _Ned: Yeah. He's a goner for sure. But that doesn't mean we can't have a little fun with him until then… just sayin'._

 _Abby: Oh! You're evil! I like it. What do you have planned?_

 _Ned: Not sure yet. Let's think on it._

 _Greg: Uh? What's going on?_

 _Abby: What?_

 _Ziva: Tony, Gibbs, Elly and McGee have all hurried into the bullpen and to McGee and Elly's computers._

 _Ned: Did you just hear him say something about a boat?_

 _Greg: I don't know. Tony looks… concerned._

 _Abby: Guys? What's happening?_

 _Abby: Hello?_

 _Abby: DON'T MAKE ME COME UP THERE!_

 _Ned: Stand by._

 _Ned: Tony just gave an uber glare to Sommers._

 _Ziva: Sommers has a death wish._

 _Greg: Now all four of them are at Elly's desk._

 _Ned: There's some hushed talking about money laundering._

 _Greg: Did Tony just say, "If he thinks I did it"?_

 _Ned: Mmhmmmm…_

 _Abby: Now what?_

 _Greg: Tony and Gibbs are leaving the bullpen. Something about Amira._

 _Abby: Holy shit! Is everything okay?!_

 _Ned: Yeah. It looks like it. They looked… concerned… but not angry or panicked or anything_

 _Abby: Oh wow! Gave me a heart attack._

Elly jumped in to update them on the situation.

 _Elly: Okay- so here's the dealio. Tony's dad is in town trying to hunt Tony down. It looks like his dad had a whole bunch of money stolen, and he's tryna find Tony. He went to Tony's old place, then here. He got crazy with the guards and they threw him off the grounds._

 _Abby: Whoa._

 _Ned: Yeah, what she said._

 _Elly: They figured Tony's dad was going to go to their house to look for Tony so they told Sierra to abandon ship._

 _Tim: She's going to bring Amira to us._

 _Ziva: I think now would be a great time for me to take Sommers to the gym for some sparring._

 _Elly: Ohhhhh… I wanna see that!_

 _Ziva: You are welcome to join us._

 _Tim: Don't kill him Ziva. You kill him, the honeymoon will be cancelled._

 _Abby: Just maim him._

 _Ned: Yeah, what she said._

 _Greg: I say we wait until next week when the bosses aren't here for him to whine to._

 _Ziva: I reluctantly see the value in that._

 _Tim: But then he's going to whine to me._

 _Elly: Eh. You're a big boy. You can handle it._

 _Abby: Yeah, what he said._

 _Ned: I think Elly should do it. Maybe it will help put his homophobic ass in check._

 _Ziva: I would be content with that._

 _Elly: I would be as well! That would have to coincide with some team on team sparring in order to make sense._

 _Ned: I call dibbs on Tim!_

 _Greg: Damn it! Ziva, go easy on me. I can't afford any broken bones right now._

 _Tim: Just checked. The gym is free Monday at 2. I've signed us all up for it, and I'm sending you all a calendar invite. Going to run the honeymoon plan up to the director. Be back soon._

 _Abby: Add me to that list!_

 _Ziva: I can think of a few others that would like to watch him be obliterated as well._

 _Ned: Like who?_

 _Ziva: He was dating Cara in accounting last year. Cheated on her with Seline from HR. Seline did not know he was still dating Cara. He had told her that he had broken it off. They both dumped him. He sent naked pictures of Tanya to Tanya's new boyfriend after she broke it off with him. Then he started harassing Heather in physical therapy when she wouldn't go out with him. The list goes on and on._

 _Greg: Wow. I knew he was a jackass, but that's downright sad._

 _Ned: AMIRA ALERT!_

 _Abby: I'll be right up!_

Tony came into the bullpen with Amira in his arms. She was telling him all about how she and Sierra had done mazes and colored pictures that morning. Ned got to his feet and greeted them halfway to their section of the bullpen.

"Boyfriend!" she announced, reaching for him. Tony chuckled and handed her off to Ned's outstretched arms.

"There's the beautiful princess!" She wrapped her arms around Ned as he hugged her with giddy glee.

"Yeah!" she answered. She turned and looked towards Elly and Parke. "Other boyfriend!" Parke chuckled at his desk as Elly got up and went to give her a hug. She wrapped her arms around him, but stayed secure in Ned's arms.

"Are you ready to spend some time with me and Dorney this week?" Elly said.

"Uh-huh!"

"We should probably talk about that," Tony said thoughtfully. He was worried his dad would come to the house again during the week while they were there. Elly and Ned were going to spend the night with Amira at the house beginning on Sunday, through the week and into the following weekend, except for Friday night when they had plans to meet with DJ Rise. She'd spend that night with Tim and Abby again.

Ned held Amira a little tighter, and gave Tony an apprehensive look.

"In light of today's situation, I don't know if you should stay at the house this week."

Ned shrugged, and waved a hand at Tony. "We can handle it."

"Yeah, Boss," Elly added. "If he were to try to come by one of the evenings we're there, we can just act like Gibbs is on assignment somewhere and we're housesitting."

"And if he sees Amira?" Ned looked at Elly and grimaced.

"Okay, maybe we're subletting or something, and we'll just pretend she's our daughter," Elly said.

Tony shook his head and ran his hand through his hair. "No. I can't ask you guys to get in the middle of our mess. I'll just call him and get him off the trail of our house."

Abby joined them, and Amira squealed with delight, reaching to be hugged. Ned reluctantly handed her over.

"Hey Abs," Tony said. "Can you take her to hang out in the lab for a while?"

"Sure thing! Ready to hang out, Ms. Shakarji-Gibbs?"

Amira giggled and nodded. "I don't got my new name yet!" she said with a sideways glance at Tony.

"But you will very soon! Just a few more weeks!" Tony chimed in.

"Yay!" Amira shouted, and hugged Abby's neck extra hard.

Tony smiled as he thought about that conversation with Amira. They wanted her to keep Leyla's name in some fashion, but they also wanted to provide her with the opportunity to have the normalcy of sharing a name with her fathers. They let her decide, and she gave it more thought than they expected from someone so young. It was also really hard though because they talked about Leyla more than they had for a while, and Amira had come to sleep with them that night like she had when Leyla had first died. Tony sighed to himself as he felt what he had come to know as the feeling of fatherhood wash over him as he looked at the brave little girl in Abby's arms as they headed for the elevator.

He looked at Elly. "Can you pull Jethro's incoming calls for today, and give me the number that my father was calling from?" he asked quietly.

Elly nodded and started tapping on his keyboard. Less than two minutes later he looked back up at Tony. "In your inbox."

"Thanks," Tony said and opened his email, then picked up his desk phone. The rest of his team got deathly silent, not even pretending that they weren't eavesdropping.

Two and a half rings in the older man's voice came through the line in an angry greeting. "Who is this?!"

"It's _me!_ " Tony growled back. "I don't know what you want, but you need to stay the hell away from me, away from my coworkers, away from my job, my home, and out of my life!"

Ned started giving a play-by-play of what was happening through the text chat, trying to be inconspicuous even though he knew it was obvious.

 _Ned: Tony's dad has answered the phone and Tony got straight to the point. His tone is cold in that way that he only gets when someone messes with someone he loves. Has me feeling on edge just to hear it._

 _Elly: I *literally* just got chills._

 _Greg: Very glad I'm not Tony's dad right now._

 _Abby: Yes! Go Tony!_

 _Jimmy: I once watched Tony in interrogation and had a nightmare that night that he was talking to me in that voice. I couldn't look at him for days._

 _Ned: This is worse than his interrogation voice._

"I don't care! I don't care about you, your life, your wife of the hour, and I _certainly_ don't give a damn about your money problems."

Elly and Greg raised an eyebrow at each other.

"Then call the police dad! I am not your personal law enforcement agency! And neither is NCIS! This is police and FBI jurisdiction. I don't have any power to take on this case, and even if I did, I _wouldn't_! You know why?! Because I don't care!"

The other three agents around him shared concerned glances, and their phones all blinked with a text.

 _Ziva: I have never heard Tony speak that way to his father. Having a family does something for him._

 _Greg: Yeah, but it sounds like something may have happened to his dad's current wife? Maybe?_

 _Elly: And the way he's talking about money- ransom? Kidnapping maybe?_

 _Abby: Whoa_

The elevator dinged, and Jethro headed towards Tony's desk, Amira's backpack over one arm and Dirt tucked under it. He slowed down as he saw all of Tony's team staring at Tony and heard the way Tony was speaking to whoever was on the other end of the line. He leaned against the filing cabinet next to Tony's desk and Tony looked up to meet his eyes.

 _Ned: Damn, if looks could kill…_

 _Elly: Gibbs#1 has joined us in the bullpen_

 _Abby: Wait? And Tony just glared at him?_

 _Greg: Not at him. More like *to* him as a way to communicate his feelings about the conversation he was having._

 _Abby: Gotcha_

"No, _Anthony_ , you listen to _me,_ " Tony's tone as he called his father by his full first name was even more malicious. "We're _done_. For good. I don't ever want to hear from you again. I never want to see you again. I don't want postcards from random vacation spots. I don't want calls on holidays or birthdays. I don't want to hear your name again for any reason. I don't even want to come to your funeral. I just want you out of my damn life! Any further attempts to contact me will be considered harassment, and _my_ lawyer will slap you with a restraining order. Now, I have to go. I have an overseas assignment. When I get back, I had better not hear that you've been to my house, my coworkers' homes, my office, or any place else that has to do with me. Have I made myself clear?"

Tony waited for a reply. "You're really going to leave me to figure this out all by myself? Where's your compassion?"

Tony laughed in a cold, detached way that made everyone who heard it feel ill. "Compassion?! For you?! I've given you all of the compassion I can muster. Leave me out of your messes. Call the police, Anthony. They'll figure this out for you. If they can. Sounds like you finally fucked up someone else's life worse than you fucked up mine. Congratulations! Get lost."

The phone slammed down, and Tony took a deep breath. A grin broke out on his face as he looked back up at Jethro. "I feel better now."

"I bet. What's going on?" Jethro asked.

"I don't know the full story, but Dad has gotten himself into some kind of serious financial trouble, and his current wife has gone missing. He got an email saying that she'd been kidnapped, but he thinks she might be trying to get ransom money out of him. Fake kidnapping. They want a million dollars."

"Which he doesn't have," Elly said with a sigh.

"Not our problem. He should've gone to the police three days ago when she went missing." Tony shrugged and went to check his email. He felt Jethro's hand land on his shoulder, and looked up. Jethro smiled at him sadly. He knew what it was like to cut strings with someone important in your life. This wasn't just cutting a string though- it was burning a bridge. He saw the tell-tale signs that the bridge was ablaze in Tony's eyes. Tony smiled sadly back, trying to hold on to the relief and let go of the equally devastating sadness.

As Jethro turned to walk away, Tony burst out laughing.

"What?" Jethro asked.

"You with Amira's Minnie Mouse backpack and Dirt in the bullpen is a sight to behold," Tony said through his chuckle. The rest of the team joined in as Jethro rolled his eyes. Greg snapped a picture of the retreating older man and sent it to the group chat. There were virtual laughs sent from around the building, but only Tony and Jethro's team were brave enough to laugh out loud.

***************WDYG?*****************

Tim knocked lightly on the open door to Vance's office with the folder in hand of their plan for the next week. The director looked up from where he was on the phone and nodded, reaching a hand to motion Tim to join him. He said his goodbye to the caller as Tim approached his desk, then looked up to reach for the file with a grin.

"I bet the Gibbses are ready to get the hell out of dodge."

Tim chuckled. "Yes, sir. They're pretty determined that they aren't going to let anything interfere with their departure tomorrow morning."

"I don't blame them. If Jackie and I were going to escape to Italy for a week I would have back up plans upon back up plans for every possible thing that could go wrong."

Tim raised his eyebrows momentarily as he looked away and then back. "I bet you wouldn't have had one for what they just got hit with."

"What's that?" Vance asked, his expression turning concerned.

"Tony's father was thrown off the property earlier."

"DiNozzo Senior was here?"

Tim nodded. "Came looking for Tony. Wasn't just here though. Went to his old apartment, called their lawyer's office… he's trying hard to reach him."

"Didn't say what for?"

Tim shook his head. "No, but I have a feeling we'll find out soon. I just hope it's after they leave."

Vance nodded, his elbows on his desk as his fingers steepled in front of his chin. "How's Sommers doing?"

The cheerful expression fell immediately from Tim's face, and he took a deep breath as he looked to the floor and then back at Vance.

"What's this one done?" Vance asked.

Tim tried to smile, but it was full of sarcasm. "Made comments in this morning's briefing about how he's going to be doing data entry while the Gibbses are on their honeymoon. Only he got explicit with it."

Vance sighed and rubbed his temples. "At least they haven't killed him yet."

"We considered it, sir. Instead we planned some team on team sparring practice in the gym on Monday afternoon."

The evil smirk on Vance's lips earned a genuine smile from Tim. "Putting him with Ziva?"

"Better. Critten. Going to let him kick the homophobia out of him."

"I approve. I expect, however, that when they get back we'll have an empty spot on the team again."

" _Ohhhh_ yeah," Tim said with a shake of his head. "We'd better."

Vance raised an eyebrow, and Tim caught himself. "I mean, I expect so, sir." Vance chuckled.

"What, in your opinion, has been the problem with everyone we've tried in that role so far, Agent McGee?"

Tim backed up and sat in one of the armchairs in front of the desk. He thought for a moment, and then started from the beginning.

"James was good, but wasn't great. And he really wanted to work on the west coast so that he was closer to family. So the transfer to the team out there was inevitable. We just didn't think it would happen so quickly. He didn't get close because he knew that he was going to leave, and we had the same issues in return. Lowe was unable to deal with the team's family dynamic. The Gibbs factor, the familial relationships we _all_ have with one another… he didn't want those kinds of connections, and he didn't approve of us having them. Baker was just incompetent. Computer smarts, but clueless in the field and especially with witnesses. Horrible with witnesses. No compassion, couldn't pick up on context clues, and he stuck his foot in his mouth every single time he spoke to Gibbs. Brossart… well you know what happened there as well as I do. He was an arrogant jerk with a huge homophobia problem. I didn't think I'd ever enjoy firing someone, but that was a wonderful experience."

"And now Sommers," Vance said with a sigh.

"And now Sommers. Also arrogant, also fairly homophobic, also unwilling to be a team player. In all honesty, I'm getting tired of inviting the wolves into the herd. They give all of us such a horrible feeling. We try to be friendly. We have to ask ourselves though if we could see this person being a member of our family, not just our team. Maybe… If we could see them working with people before we invite them in, I have a feeling we'll have a better stick. Then we'd know what to expect."

"I'll give that some thought. There's a couple of agents looking to transfer out of a couple of positions right now. One in the Gulf, one in Maine. I'm not sure if any of them would be a good fit for your team, but we'll run it by Gibbs when he gets back."

Tim nodded, and got to his feet.

"And McGee, if DiNozzo Senior comes around while they're gone, I want you to refer him to _me_. Spread the word. If he contacts anyone, they are not to tell the Gibbses until they get back. I'll handle him."

Tim tried to hide the surprise he felt, and nodded. "Yes, Director."

Vance nodded, and Tim left the room. He went out onto the catwalk to look over the railing at where Gibbs and Gibbs were talking, the full attention of Tony's team on them. He pulled out his phone and saw the texts that had been sent, and smirked at the photo. He made his way down to his desk and glanced at Ziva. She smiled back as they shared an inside moment of pride for Tony.

 _Tim: Vance says that if Senior contacts any of us or tries to come onto the campus while the Gibbses are away, we are to contact him directly. He'll deal with it personally._ _And he's also given Elly the go ahead to kick Sommers' ass on Monday._

Elly looked past the Gibbses, and smirked and nodded at Tim. Ziva gave Tim a look of approval, and sat her phone down as she got back to the cold case in front of her.

 _Ned: It's nice to know the Director will have our backs when the shit hits the fan._

 _Abby:_ _And let us hand egotistic, narcissistic, homophobic idiots their asses when we need to._

Tony looked around to see the bright grins on everyone's faces around him. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Nothing!" came a chorus of voices from both sides of the bullpen.


	2. Chapter 2 (Edited)

_Forgive me my loves! When I originally posted this chapter I'd decided last minute not to do something I'd planned with Jimmy and Breena, and instead, in my exhaustion wrote about their wedding plans. Forgetting in my muddled mind that they'd already gotten married! Thanks RJones for pointing out my obvious faux pau! So I'm reposting this with the original idea. This is what I get for second guessing myself. Consider myself thoroughly kicked._

What Do You Got: Chapter Two

Jethro sat back in his desk chair with Amira resting her head on his shoulder half asleep. He closed his eyes as well with a soft smile on his face. They were going to be gone for a whole week without her, and he was going to miss her. He knew it. He was more worried though about how she was going to do with them gone for so long. He didn't remember any time where Leyla had ever left her in someone else's care this long. He knew there had been occasional slumber parties at Miram's house, and she'd spent the night with Abby and Tim before. And the guys were always at the house, sometimes even crashing there when they'd all been drinking after Amira went down for the night.

This was different though.

Amira had just lost Leyla a few months before. Not even that long. Her new dads were everything safe and secure to her in the world. He knew their friends had everything possible planned for her while they were gone to keep her comfortable and distracted, complete with the new adventure of staying at Sierra's apartment during the day, and having the guys spending almost every night with her at the house. He was excited in so many ways about his honeymoon, but there was something in his gut that just wouldn't settle. It wasn't horrible or ominous, but it did tell him that this wasn't going to go as smoothly as they wanted it to.

Vance's voice pulled him from his thoughts, and caused him to open his eyes.

"I don't know if I've ever seen you look so… serene," he jested quietly.

Jethro smirked, and Tony smiled to himself from over the dividing wall as he eavesdropped.

"All is right in the world," Jethro said softly. "I have my daughter and husband close and safe, my flight leaves in the morning for my honeymoon, and that dumbass has left for the day."

Vance laughed soundlessly. "I heard he got out of hand in this morning's meeting."

"McGee told you what he said?"

"The PG version."

Jethro grunted.

"I expect his reassignment papers on my desk when you get back."

Jethro nodded and cocked an eyebrow at his boss.

"Had a quick chat with McGee about that spot. Might have an idea or two. We'll talk when you return."

"Idea?"

"On ways to get to know agents before we put them on your team. Make sure they even have a shot before we go that far."

"Just gonna take time." Jethro was curious as to what these ideas may be, but he knew he'd find out in due time.

Vance nodded. "I'd like to see us start that clock before we make the transition to your team. I need to think on it some more, and you need to go home."

Amira shifted and snuggled into Jethro's collar before sighing and returning to sleep. "Waiting for Abby to finish some tests for Balboa. McGee is helping her. Should be done soon."

"Good. You've got my number if you need me. Safe travels." Vance turned and headed for the elevator. As he got on, Abby and Tim got off. They exchanged farewells, and the two joined Jethro and Tony in the bullpen.

"Awww, Gibbs!" Abby gushed quietly with her hands over her heart.

Jethro rubbed Amira's back. "Time to wake up sweetie." Amira groaned and sat partially up, rubbing her eyes. "Come on," he cajoled. "Abby and Tim are going to take you to dinner and a movie."

"A movie?" Amira asked cautiously and quietly, still trying to regain her senses.

"Yeah!" Abby said excitedly. "We're going to get popcorn and everything!"

"Sound good?" Jethro asked. Amira nodded and rubbed her eyes. She crawled down off of Jethro's lap and stood there for a minute as she adjusted to the brightness around her.

"Then you'll spend the night at our house tonight, and tomorrow we've got a big day planned!" Tim said with a grin as he packed up his things for the night.

"Fun things?" Amira asked.

"Of course!" Abby said.

Amira turned to Jethro. "Do you have to go away? You can do fun things with us, too!"

Jethro smiled at her, and put his hand on the side of her head. "Daddy Tony and I are going to go on our honeymoon while you have a special week full of fun with your godparents and the guys. You'll have so much fun you won't have a chance to miss us!"

"But I don't want you to go," she said softly.

"Why not?" Jethro asked. Amira just threw herself on him and shrugged.

Tony stood up and leaned over the divider. "You'll be okay," he said. "You have to stay here and make sure that Tim, Abby, Elly, and Dorney don't get lonely. And Daddy Gibbsy and I need some adult time."

"Eeeeewwww! Cooties!" Amira squealed as she continued to roll against Jethro until she could look up at Tony.

"Lots of cooties!" Tony said conspiratorially.

Jethro pulled Amira into his arms, and started pecking kisses all over her face much to her glee. She wriggled free and ran for the safety of Tim, and he betrayed her by tickling her. She squealed and shouted "Timmy!" at the top of her lungs before giggling.

"You ready to go?" Abby asked as she grinned at them.

"Yeah," she said, but she ran around the bullpen and over to Tony who scooped her up in a hug.

"You be good for Abby, Tim, Sierra and the guys, okay?" he said.

"Okay," she said.

"I love you very, very, very much, and I'll miss you lots," he told her as he squeezed her and kissed her cheek.

"I love you, and I will miss you lotses, too," she said.

"But we'll video chat every night before bed, and you can tell us all about your day," Tony reminded her.

"Promise?" she asked.

"I promise," he said, holding up his pinky for her to link hers with. She obliged, and then hugged him within an inch of his life. He stood up and carried her back over to Jethro who hugged her and told her he loved her as well.

"Okay Princess Amira! Let's go!" Abby said.

"Take care of our girls, McGee," Jethro said with a smirk.

"Will do, Boss." He turned to Tony and held up his pinky with a smirk. "I pinky promise." Tony shoved him, and they all laughed as Tim followed Abby and Amira to the elevator.

"What about you?" Jethro asked. "Are you ready?"

"For our honeymoon? Yes. For leaving our daughter behind for a week? No."

"I don't know which of you will have it the worst," Jethro said with a chuckle as he got to his feet. He stepped close to Tony, and bent to whisper in his ear. "I can think of some great ways to distract you."

Tony's eyes closed, and his breath caught. He loved when Jethro whispered in his ear. There was something about it that made him feel possessed and wanted. It was incredibly hot.

"I'm sure you can," Tony said with a flirty tone as he opened his eyes and stepped away to get his stuff from his desk.

He met up with Jethro again at the stairwell, and they headed down slowly together, hands finding each other. Their stop in the blind bend for a kiss was a little longer than usual. Jethro's hand found its way around Tony's waist, and Tony moaned into the kiss.

"Getting started early?" Tony asked.

"Started? I never stopped," he said with a smirk, and pulled Tony with him down the stairs.

"Do you know how badly I want you right here and now?" Tony said softly as they made their way.

Jethro smirked to himself. "My very own exhibitionist."

Tony laughed. "Well, I've had my moments."

"Oh? I'd like to hear about those moments."

"Really?" Tony asked as they got into the car.

"Better yet, you probably shouldn't tell me. I don't know if I'd be more jealous, or take you in the backseat."

"Hopefully backseat," Tony said with a waggle of his eyebrows. Jethro's grin made Tony grin wider.

They were home rather quickly for Friday night rush hour traffic, and within seconds they were rushing to get each other's clothes off. Tony's hands guided Jethro's jacket over his shoulders while Jethro pulled the knot loose in Tony's tie. There was a sweet, playful summer glee to their love making. They were hungry for it, but they didn't burn too hot or too fast. Shirts came off next, and hands coursed their familiar way over each other's torsos, throaty moans acknowledging their appreciation of each other's time in the gym. Meanwhile, their mouths were connected in a tongue battle that neither wanted to win, but fought gallantly anyway.

Finally, they were down to their pants. Tony pulled Jethro's belt open, unbuttoned his slacks, and then used the waistband to turn the older man and back him up until he fell over the arm of the couch. Jethro crashed onto his back with a laugh. Tony laughed as well, looking down on the love of his life as he unbuckled his pants and stripped down. Jethro was pulling his pants down as he scooted back on the couch, cock springing to attention. Tony got into the end table drawer, and reached in the back corner for the glasses case they kept a small bottle of lube hidden in.

Jethro raised an eyebrow at him, curious as to which way this was going to go. Tony moved to straddle Jethro, his smile never fading. Jethro let one leg rest over the side of the couch on the floor to give Tony room to perch above him. Jethro held out his palm, familiar enough with Tony now to know that Tony was going for a ride if he was mounted like this. Tony squirted a palm full of the liquid into his hand, and Jethro slicked himself well, then lined himself up for Tony to lower himself on. It was a deliciously slow descent, and with every centimeter Tony descended on Jethro's cock, Jethro descended into madness.

When Tony rode him like this without prepping he could be so tight that Jethro was terrified of hurting his husband, but Tony insisted he liked the slow burn of the stretch, and even begged for it sometimes. Jethro loved when Tony begged, but for now he was content just to be with Tony, alone, happy and carefree for the first time in weeks.

Tony finally bottomed out, his head thrown back in the beautiful feeling of being joined with Jethro. He moved cautiously, knowing that he wasn't completely pliant enough to start a hard ride yet, but yearning for it. He opened his dazed eyes, and looked down at Jethro as he started to slowly rock his hips.

Jethro's eyes half closed, but only half. He watched Tony, and Tony watched him. Every move Tony made elicited another motion from Jethro; a bitten lip, a gasp through parting lips, an arch of his back. Tony earned each small token of lust with twisted rolls of his hips that increased in speed and intensity as he continued. Soon he was rising and falling over Jethro's cock with a slick, slide, slap!

Tony's ass hitting Jethro's thighs in the summer heat stung. The windows had been left open all day, and the heat in the room was becoming stifling as their love making intensified. Jethro started thrusting up to meet Tony's gallop. There were words of encouragement that neither remembered nor really listened to as they reached for that peak. Once they hit it, they both tumbled over fairly close to one another. Jethro filled Tony, and Tony came partially over Jethro's chest and into his own fist.

Tony sat back on Jethro's thighs as he caught his breath, his head towards the ceiling. Once he looked down at Jethro they simultaneously said, "Shower" and got to their feet. They ran for the bedroom and into the bathroom, the heat of the August day making them extra-aware of their sweat and body fluids. They took the time to slow down in the shower though, kissing and touching each other in a slow languid way that they hadn't had the ability to do for a long while now since Amira came to live with them.

It was official- their honeymoon had begun.

*******WDYG?********

Parke was sitting on the couch with Tiffany as they discussed what the doctor had told her at her doctor's appointment that morning. Parke was aggravated with himself for not taking the time off to be with her. He had been for every other appointment, so he thought that it would be fine to miss one, especially with how Tiff was acting towards him. Of course, Murphy's Law prevailed, and this one had ended up being important.

Tiffany had been having pains, but then again, she'd been having all sorts of pains and horrible morning sickness throughout the entire pregnancy thus far until about a week prior when the vomiting finally stopped. They thought the worst of it was over. They were content now, and were working to move things forward with getting the nursery prepped and planning the shower.

Until the appointment that morning put a big damper on everything.

The baby was turned in a weird position, which in and of itself wasn't the worst thing. But Tiffany's sugar counts were through the roof. She was a well-managed hypoglycemic when she wasn't pregnant, but she had developed full-blown diabetes now that she was carrying. On top of that, her blood pressure had skyrocketed, and the baby's heartbeat was a little fast for only 15 weeks along.

"She's just anxious to get here!" Parke tried to joke with Tiff to lighten the mood. But apparently the doctor didn't think anything about the situation was funny. He was demanding that Tiffany go on immediate bedrest, and unless the situation improved drastically, she would be down until the baby girl was born.

They discussed the financial aspects, then moved to the implications for their work lives and home lives. In the back of his mind Parke was terrified. Not only was his little girl fragile, but he and Tiff had already been stretching the bonds of their love with the Prego Monster mood swings. He tried to remember that behind the angry and bitter retorts was the wife he loved so dearly, buried under hormonal rage. She cycled between happy, horribly bitter and demonic, to guilt-ridden and shame-filled, to loving, to happy again.

If Parke didn't know better, he'd call her out on the cycle of abuse he'd been receiving. He did have some heartfelt talks with her about being the Prego Monster, and she'd given him permission to call her out on it. It helped. Most of the time. But not always. He just kept telling himself that his daughter would make it all worth it, but he was almost as excited to have his wife back to normal as he was to have the baby girl brought into the world. He wondered how they were going to make it through the next six months, but he was determined to find a way.

************WDYG?***************

Elly and Ned walked hand-in-hand through the park. The sun was setting over the docks, and they both took turns glancing up to watch the boats bob on the water, shadowy silhouettes against the fiery sky. They had been talking about the meeting that morning and Sommers' comment.

"Are you really going to kick his ass on Monday?" Ned asked.

"Probably," Elly answered back with a shrug. "Take him down a peg, help him up, take him down another peg. I've seen him fighting in the gym before. He's all classic technique. FLETC style. So predictable. He doesn't stand a chance. You can tell he's never had a serious punch thrown at him in the street."

"Well, he is a baby agent."

"He's going to be lucky to be an agent at all once the Gibbses are done with him."

"I love that," Ned said with a happy sigh.

"What?" Elly asked, bumping him with his shoulder as they walked closely.

"The Gibbses," he said, looking over at Elly with a bright smile. "I'm just still so blown away at how this year has gone! Them getting married was just the icing on the cake."

"No," Elly corrected. "You and I getting married will be the icing on the cake." He stopped and reached for Ned's other hand, turning to stand chest to chest with him. He loved when Ned looked shy like this, his eyes gray and shadowy, yet somehow so full of light; his smile just for him. He leaned up to kiss that smile now, and Ned slipped his hands around Elly's waist, pulling him towards him. The kiss deepened and they stood in the shadow of a tall sailboat as they kissed through the sunset.

Once the sun dipped over the horizon, and they realized it had gotten dark while they'd been making out, Elly pulled back. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Ned said with a smile. At some point his hands had gone into the back pockets of Elly's jeans. He pulled him closer to him and kissed him one more time before letting him go completely.

They linked hands and headed towards where Ned's car was parked. They were both quiet for the first minute or so, and then Ned turned to Elly.

"I am going to like staying at Boss' house this week. I like how it feels like a home, you know? It's just… cozy? Maybe cozy isn't the right word."

"It feels like a family lives there, and it feels like we're a part of that family," Elly said, looking up at Ned with seriously happy eyes. Ned noticed the look and smiled. He bit his lower lip, thinking about what he wanted to say, and then looked away as he wondered if now was the right time.

"What?" Elly asked.

"Nothing," Ned said.

"Bullshit. What's going on in there?" Elly pushed.

"Well, we haven't really talked about whether or not we want to start a family, though I think we've both dropped clues that it's a part of the plans."

"I think we want to. Am I reading that right?" Elly asked cautiously.

Ned nodded. "Definitely!" His smile doubled. "I'm just not sure when. We have the kind of career that makes it hard. Look at how difficult things are for Boss and Gibbs."

"Yeah, but they are two team leads with a daughter that just suffered a tragic loss. For that matter, they suffered that loss as well. We're not team leads, and I'm hoping that our child hasn't been recently traumatized."

"Our child… whoa." Ned said, his eyes going wide and his jaw dropping.

Elly blinked a few times. "Our child. Yeah, that's got some powerful implications behind it, doesn't it?"

"Hell yeah it does! And the way my stomach just dropped out from under me tells me it's probably too soon to be looking into that."

"Okay, I agree," Elly said as they reached Ned's car and parted to get in on their opposite sides. Once in, Ned turned the car on and then the air conditioner, but didn't move to go anywhere.

"What are your long term goals?" Ned asked Elly. "I mean, you're an SFA. You're going places very quickly. Where do you see yourself in ten years?"

"Uhhh…" Elly suddenly felt like he was taking the most important exam of his life, and he had no clue what the answer was. His mouth went dry, and he cleared his throat. He felt Ned take his hand and grasped it like a lifeline. "Well, I know I still want to be with NCIS. And I don't mind being the SFA still, but with special projects to keep me busy." There was a long silence. "Honestly, the very idea of our team not being our team has me panicking." He looked at Ned, whose face in the dusky shadow was as gray as his eyes, which were shining.

"Me, too. But I see me doing more and more MTAC operations."

They sat for a moment in the darkness, then Ned squinted his eyes and his mouth started opening. Elly saw and watched him patiently, waiting for the thought to turn into words. "What if," Ned started, his mouth closing as he thought another moment, and then turned to stare Elly in the eyes. "What if we became a special projects team? Like, I'd be the tactical specialist. You could do what you've always wanted to do and focus on trafficking and the paper trail, and Greg could focus on profiling. And we'd all help each other with one another's projects, but we'd still be field agents, too. Like the specialist team for certain types of cases."

"Isn't that what the MCRT is supposed to be?" Elly asked.

"Well, not really. They handle the most serious crimes, like murders and high profile cases. But ten years from now, I wouldn't be surprised if Gibbs had retired, and Tony was tapped to run the MCRT. Add Ziva's linguistic and fighting skills, McGee's badass computer skills, our focuses, and Tony would have a large team that all had these specialties. It would be like we're all superheroes or something. Tony's very own NCIS X-men!"

Elly laughed, but he saw where Ned was going. "Wait- is Tony Professor X? And if so, is he the Patrick Stewart or James McAvoy version?"

"Oh, tough call. We all know Patrick Stewart is the better actor, but I don't know if Tony could pull off the bald head."

"McAvoy it is then. So you're saying our team would merge with the MCRT when Gibbs finally retires one day, and we'd be like a Super MCRT. I could see that. But I think we'd have a couple of things standing in the way."

"Like what?" Ned asked.

"Well, I know Tony wants me to take on more of a liaison role between NCIS and other agencies. He mentioned it to me in my yearly review. And you know the Director wants you to handle more ops. And when Gibbs is gone, he's only going to lean on you for that twice as hard. You'll probably leave the field behind altogether."

"I won't let that happen. I need the field too much. I may not be able to do half as much as what I do now, but I'm going to still be on a team. That's a non-negotiable for me."

"But," Elly said gently, "If we have kids, having a stable op schedule versus a field agent's schedule could be really beneficial."

"Hmmm…" Ned said, thinking about it with a heavy dose of skepticism. "I don't know about that. A lot of our ops are in the middle of the night because of the time difference. I wouldn't have as stable as a schedule as you think. And when I do get called in, the likelihood that it's at an inconvenient time is more than I think you're thinking."

"Eh, I guess that depends," Elly said with a shrug.

"So you think we'll have kids in ten years?" Ned asked.

"I think so. I turn 30 next Friday. I imagine we'll have kids by time I'm 40."

"I'll be 30 in September, and I kinda thought I'd have a lot more figured out by now."

"I completely agree!" Elly said with a chuckle. "I don't know what I thought I'd be doing, but all of my friends back home already have houses, families, all of that. I know it's the nature of the job, but I feel behind schedule."

"We've got to decide what the right schedule is for us."

"When do you want to tackle having a family? Is it tied to your career goals?"

"I guess not. I don't know… maybe five years?"

Elly nodded. "I can do five years," he said as he thought about it. "I don't think we'd want to wait much longer than that though. Look at what Gibbs is going through. You know he's going to be 70 when Amira graduates from high school? I don't want to be that old when our kids graduate."

"True!" Ned said with an emphatic nod. "I don't either. I want to be able to enjoy my grandkids."

"Grandkids!" Elly said with a burst of surprise as the idea. "I'm really not ready to start thinking about grandkids!"

Ned laughed, but he finally put the car in drive and started heading towards Elly's apartment. A couple of minutes later he was waiting at an intersection and he saw a "for rent" sign. "Wanna buy a house with me?" he asked, turning to Elly.

Elly looked back with wide eyes. "Seriously?" he asked.

"Yeah," Ned said as the light changed. "I mean, I know we both like staying at Boss and Gibbs' house. Maybe we should have one of our own."

"A house…" Elly said thoughtfully. "That's a big responsibility. But you're right. I do like the home feel of the Gibbses' house. Do you think ours would feel like that without a kid?"

"I think so. I think it will feel like whatever we make it feel like. And we'd be established and together when we're ready to have kids of our own."

Elly nodded at that. He liked that thought. Some stability for their child. It was sitting well in his stomach, and made him feel warm inside. "We should look into that. What type of house do you want? And where do you want to live?"

Ned smiled, thinking about how awesome it was that they were thinking about buying a house! He wanted to jump up for joy. "Something with shutters. I like shutters."

Elly laughed a little, a matching smile on his face. "I can do shutters. I am not a fan of picket fences though. I like the whole open front yard, fenced in back yard thing."

"Agreed. And I want a big enough back yard that we can have a pool. Doesn't have to be a fancy in-ground or anything, but some place that we can lounge on a floaty while the kids splash is my idea of awesome."

"Totally agree on the pool, only I would love for it to be an in-ground. Something big enough to do laps in."

"I can get behind that," Ned said with a nod. "Maybe a two story? Nice back deck? Team barbeques and pool parties?"

"I'm loving the sound of this more and more," Elly said with a slow nod to match Ned's. "A little fire pit for the autumn. Sit around it with a beer or two."

"We should take a look at our finances this weekend and see what we're capable of."

"We could save up a lot more if one of us ditched our apartment."

"We were planning on doing that anyway," Ned pointed out.

"Maybe we should speed that up. Your lease renews in September, mine in December. We should see if we can do it by the wedding, or if we need to wait a year. That would help us figure out whose apartment to keep and whose to ditch."

"I like your apartment better than mine," Ned said plainly. "Moving twice in a few months would be pretty hard on us though."

"Well, I guess we could put stuff in storage until we're ready to move into the house instead of moving everything into the apartment, up the stairs, and back down again."

"True," Ned said, thinking about how hard it was to get his couch up the stairs and around the bend when he moved in.

They were quiet for a few minutes until they pulled into a spot a block from Elly's apartment. Ned turned off the car and they sat there in silence for a long moment.

"We're buying a house!" Elly suddenly blurted out in amazement.

"We're making a home," Ned confirmed, turning to look at Elly with a wide smile.

Elly suddenly reached over and put a hand to each side of Ned's face, bringing it to him for a deep kiss. When he pulled away Ned was dazed, but they were both smiling from ear to ear.

"I can't wait to make a home with you," Elly whispered. Ned's answer was to lean in and kiss him again until their heads swam.

*******WDYG?********

Ziva ran through the apartment in shorts and an oversized t-shirt, a newspaper in her hand, and Dion right behind her. She was laughing, and when Dion caught up with her and picked her up to pull her helplessly down on the couch with him, she squealed. Dion's impish smile was full of happy mischief.

"Let me see it!" he said through his laughter.

Ziva finally held up the paper so that they both could see it, moving to lean against Dion. There was an article on the front page of the business section about the restaurant. There were three pictures, including one of the two of them standing in the middle of the dining area, their arms around each other's waist as they looked up at one another.

"I look moonstruck," she said, daunted frustration coloring her voice.

"Star struck? Love struck? Love sick?" Dion asked, partially trying to puzzle out what she meant, and partially teasing her botched expression. She didn't say anything, but gave him a light smack on the chest. "All the above then," he said with a soft intimate laugh as they settled a moment to read the article.

It had been well done. It talked about the restaurant opening and thriving, giving the variety of authentic European foods beautiful praise. They mentioned the drink selection, and the way the drinks were suggested with each type of food on the menu. It listed the impressive list of accomplishments that Dion held in the culinary world, such as where he'd studied and who he'd studied with. It then turned the focus towards the business management side of things. It talked about Dion's business degree, and how most chefs are now required to take basic business classes for culinary arts degrees, and how Dion had done so long before it was a requirement.

A couple of paragraphs also mentioned Ziva, and Dion was quoted about how it was important to surround yourself with the right kind of people. They didn't have to have degrees in business or even culinary arts; they just had to have the passion for food and the family feel of a true European restaurant. "The positivity makes up for any challenges presented," he said. "Having the people closest to you supporting your dreams makes anything possible."

When they'd finished reading the lengthy expose, Ziva tilted her head up from Dion's shoulder to look him in the eyes and he bent to kiss her.

"This would not have been possible without you my love," he said softly, his gaze going straight to her soul as he reached up to brush a strand of hair away from her face.

"You were working towards this long before I met you," she said.

"But it would have been an inconceivable struggle had you not been there by my side through so many moments where I wanted to give up. You gave me the strength, courage, and energy to move forward when so often I wanted to stick my head in the sand."

"I am glad I can be that for you," she said, her hand going to the side of his face and down to his neck as she kissed him softly.

********WDYG?********

"Did you talk to Tiffany today?" Jimmy said, coming up behind Breena and wrapping her in an embrace, his palms on her lower stomach.

"No. I texted her, and she said she would call me later to have a long talk. I think something happened at her doctor's appointment."

"Oh," Jimmy said. "I hope everything is okay."

Breena stirred the skillet in front of her as Jimmy slipped away, reaching to pull plates from the cabinet and set the table.

"It didn't feel okay, you know?" she said, turning the burner off on their stir fry.

"Do you want me to text Greg, and see if he's willing to elaborate?" he asked.

"No, don't do that. I don't want to be pushy. We'll find out when we find out. For now, let's just enjoy our dinner together." She smiled at him with her pristine grin, and he smiled back. He couldn't help but feel a little nervous about that situation though. He knew that Greg had been really stressed out lately. If something was wrong with the pregnancy he was afraid his friend would simply lose it.

He settled down, and focused on Breena. "Are you having any morning sickness?" he asked.

"No. Not at all. I was really looking forward to telling Tiffany today. I think it would be so neat if we could do a double baby shower! That way you know we could plan together, and I know she's farther along than me, but we could've done ours a little early. And with _two_ of us tackling it, it would've been so much more fun, not to mention easier."

"I almost told Dr. Mallard today. I'm bubbling with excitement! But, I got myself under control, and I didn't give us away. I just know he's going to be so happy for us." He smiled brightly, and then his face turned to one of concern.

"What's wrong, honey?" Breena asked.

"It's just, if something is wrong with Greg and Tiff's baby, I'm worried about how they're going to take the news that we're expecting."

Breena nodded and sighed in relief. "I'm so glad you said it. I have been feeling so selfish because I was worried that something was wrong, and if it was, our joy would be tainted with the sorrow our friends would be feeling, and I just… I really want to be happy! This is our dream! We're starting a family together, and I'm so happy. And Tiffany has become such a good friend, pregnancy hormones aside. I'd hate to see her so sad."

"Well, let's not jump to any conclusions. It's probably nothing serious." Jimmy picked his fork back up, and took another bite of his stir fry.

"Oh!" Breena said, suddenly lighting up. "What if they suddenly found out they're having twins?!"

Jimmy lit up at that idea, too. "That would be amazing!"

"There's lots of stories about not seeing the second twin because the first is in the way. Maybe that's why she's been so sick and hormonal!"

Jimmy thought about that for a minute, going through his training to see if that made any sense. He shrugged, and put on a noncommittal face. "Could be."

In the back of his head he knew the likelier story. Greg had never known his family history. There could be any number of genetic defects that could be affecting the baby. They could find out it was potentially going to have down syndrome or some kind of deformity. He changed the subject to how good Breena's stir fry always turned out compared to his. There needed to be something else to talk about so he wouldn't dwell on that.

*********WDYG?********

Abby closed the door of the guest room almost completely, leaving just a little crack for some light to shine though. Tim stood in the hallway and smiled at her.

"You're the best godmother ever!" he whispered.

"It's so easy with her!" she whispered back, heading down the hallway with him until they got to their bedroom. Once they closed the door to their room, the whispering became soft conversation.

"I have to admit, she does make things pretty easy. Almost makes it look like anyone could raise a kid."

Abby chuffed. "Yeah, well we all know that's not true."

"We've seen enough to know better," Tim said with a sigh as he unbuttoned his shirt to slip into something more comfortable.

Abby was changing her clothes, too, but she was also thinking very deeply. She'd had mixed feelings about having kids of her own her entire life. She loved kids, but she also loved her freedom. If settling into a deeper relationship with Tim had taught her anything, it had taught her that she didn't like to be tied to things. She smiled softly as she looked at the younger man pulling his head through a green t-shirt. He was the exception, but only because he was willing to ride the rollercoaster ride of life at her pace. A kid wouldn't do that. She'd have to ride life at _their_ pace, and she was realizing more and more that she didn't think she wanted that. She was really worried though that Tim did, and that he'd be disappointed to find out what she was thinking.

She hadn't realized she'd been staring at Tim for so long when he startled her out of her thoughts.

"What's up?" he asked. She shook her head and focused on his eyes.

"I don't know how to say this, so I'm just going to come out and say it."

"Okay?" Tim said.

"I don't think I want to have kids."

The shock on Tim's face made her curl in on herself internally, and her heart stopped.

"Oh… okay," Tim said, blinking.

"Are you mad? Disappointed? Upset? Because, I'd understand if you were. We've always talked about little Abbies and Tims running around, and I know we've never really talked seriously about this, and we probably should've, and I guess I didn't know what I wanted, but I think I do now, and I don't think… I don't think it's _that_."

Tim smiled at her and moved to stand in front of her, taking her hands in his. "Abs, breathe."

Abby took a deep breath and stared back into her partner's face. She was surprised to see that it was so calm, because at the moment she felt anything _but_ calm.

"I've kind of thought the same thing," he said. "I mean, I'm not positive, but… I could go either way."

Abby blinked a few times. "Really?" she asked. She suddenly felt very confused.

"Really. I mean, I am in the field in dangerous situations all the time that could kill me. We work excruciatingly long hours. Most of our friends will probably have kids that we can be the best aunts and uncles to, and then we get to send them home afterwards. We won't lack children in our lives, but we also won't be responsible for them like a parent would. I think… I think I'm okay with that."

"Wow," she replied. "I totally thought that was going to be like a potential deal breaker. Seems anticlimactic to hear you say all that."

"Not to say that might not change, and it's okay if you change your mind, too. I could go either way. I'm not aching to be a father, but if you wanted to do the whole parental thing, I could be talked into it. I'm good either way."

"You are so awesome, Timmy," she said, throwing her arms around him. She took a deep breath and held him tightly. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too, Abs."

She let him go and finished changing her clothes as she thought about what had just happened. Things just kept getting easier and easier with Tim. She used to wait for the other shoe to drop, but now she was enjoying the ride they were on together. It was exactly what she needed, even if she didn't know it was what she wanted.


	3. Chapter 3

_Okay, so I feel like I'm getting_ very _brave here. Things aren't going to go according to cannon, but I hope you like it! And I had to make a change towards the end of the previous chapter, so if you didn't see that, you may want to check on it._

What Do You Got: Chapter Three

Tony was exhausted as they dragged their luggage through the airport at 0500 the next morning. He knew the early flight was sensible since they had a long journey ahead of them, but their honeymoon kickoff the night before had them both wiped out. Even as they started in on round three Tony knew it wasn't a good idea, but he couldn't resist Jethro at his most delicious. It was an hour of sleep he didn't regret missing, but at the same time was currently wishing he had.

Jethro was fairing a little better, but not much. He'd had multiple cups of coffee before leaving the house, and as soon as they got through security and to their gates he was going in search of another one. He knew they could sleep once they got on the plane, but they'd arrived early because they knew what the check in process would look like that early in the morning. Thankfully their clearances had them TSA prescreened, and they were able to roll right on through with the small carry on Tony had packed with necessities for their long flight.

Jethro had told Tony that he wouldn't need much but a good book, but Tony had insisted on packing a change of clothes for each of them in case their luggage was lost, as well as some things to keep them occupied. There were crosswords, Sudoku, their tablets, spare charger packs, some candy, a couple of breakfast bars, and two toothbrushes with a travel size toothpaste. He wasn't leaving anything to chance. It also had their backup documents in case something happened and they lost their passports.

An hour later they were boarded and sitting in their first class seats, an upgrade that Jethro had gotten just to spoil Tony. They had blankets and pillows, and Tony was sipping a complementary mimosa while Jethro finished a cup of coffee. The rest of the passengers were shuffling past them as they took their seats, and soon the attendant came by to take their empty cups before takeoff.

The two men looked at each other, a smile on their lips meant for only each other, and without a damn given, they linked hands and settled in to get some sleep.

********WDYG?********

Tim groaned as the phone next to him rang on the night stand. It was only 0600 in the morning on a Saturday, and he was not looking forward to what was on the other end of the line. He sat up, answering the call that made him feel the mantle of responsibility like no other. Not only was this going to be a rough case, but it was a joint case with the NSA. A Marine and an NSA agent were found shot point blank on the banks of the Potomac, and there were signs of torture.

He took notes from the dispatcher, and then turned to see Abby partially awake and rubbing her eyes. As he hung up she got out of bed. "I'll call Sierra and get Amira ready," she said. "I'll see you at the office."

"You're amazing Abby," he said as he got up to throw clothes on. He was dialing Ziva already as he pulled a pair of pants from the closet. She answered with the same low energy he felt. He quirked an eyebrow at that since he knew she was an early riser every day of the week. He didn't have time to think too deeply about it as he ran down what he had with her.

"I will call Sommers, and see you at the office," she said quietly, and then hung up. Tim continued getting dressed, and called Elly at the same time.

"Oh, hell no," the younger man answered the phone. "Are you serious? Have our bosses even taken off down the runway yet?"

Tim's mouth quirked up in a smile at that. "Afraid so. We have a Marine and an NSA agent killed, and possibly tortured. We need to hurry."

"I'm with Ned, and I'll call Greg."

"Great. See you in twenty."

Elly rolled over and shook Ned. "Baby, we've got a case. Come on, we gotta get up. Bad news bears. Dead Marine and NSA agent, and McGee says they've been tortured." That got Ned's attention, and he sat up.

"Seriously?" he asked.

"Yup," Elly got out of bed and headed for the closet, his phone to his ear to call Greg.

"Fuck," Ned said through a yawn, then got out of bed himself. Elly turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. Ned's more colorful vocabulary usually only came out at more erotic times. Then he saw the morning wood his fiancé was sporting, and realized that it was a fitting expression. The things he'd prefer to be doing almost distracted him from Greg answering the phone. Ned made his way into the bathroom to relieve his bladder, and then joined him in the bedroom where they were pulling clothes on in a hurry.

Elly finished first, and headed for the kitchen. There wasn't time to make coffee, but there was a six pack of 20 ounce Mountain Dews in the fridge. He grabbed one for each of them and a pack of Poptarts, then met Ned at the door. They grabbed their NCIS windbreakers from the hooks along the wall and hoped that it was a little cooler out than it had been the past couple of mornings. Otherwise, the windbreakers would be stifling.

As they jogged towards Ned's car, they were grateful to find it was actually somewhat chilly for an August morning. The rain that had come through overnight had helped with that. However, that rain would probably have ruined their crime scene.

They hopped in, Elly behind the wheel, and took off towards the Navy Yard. Ned opened the Poptarts, and handed one to Elly. They ate and slurped down their Dews as Ned found a song on the CD in the player to get them energized. He knew that Elly appreciated a good beat in the morning to get him going, and he knew which songs they agreed had that kind of power. They were soon bobbing their heads and tapping their fingers to the music, silent themselves as they headed into the quiet Navy Yard. A quick flash of their badges at the gate, and a couple of minutes later they found themselves standing in the evidence garage.

McGee was packing the truck, and briefing Ducky and Palmer on their situation. Ziva came in looking just as tired as the rest of them, which wasn't unnoticed by any of them. Greg finally came rushing in looking like he had been up all night, and not for fun reasons.

They were about to load into vehicles when Tim realized that they were missing Sommers. He shook his head and pulled out his phone. As he hit dial they heard a ring tone start chiming in the hallway, then Sommers appeared. He sauntered in casually, and looked at everyone staring at him. Tim simply shook his head and said, "Let's go."

"What?" Sommers asked, moving to get into the rear passenger of the Charger. Ziva looked at Tim from behind the wheel, then glanced surreptitiously back at Sommers, asking Tim's permission for something. Tim raised an eyebrow, and reached for the handle above his door. Three seconds later they were pealing out of the garage, the other charger with Elly's team and the two evidence trucks driven by Ducky and Palmer pulling out much slower after them.

Thankfully, they weren't going far, because Tim's stomach was rolling within two minutes of takeoff. Sommers was being tossed around the backseat. Tim was tired of reprimanding him for not wearing his seatbelt. One would've thought Ziva's driving would've been enough to scare the moron into putting it on, but his stubborn idiocy won out, and he slid here and there. When Ziva eventually slammed on the breaks he was pitched into the back of Tim's seat face first.

"Damn, Ziva! Get a grip!"

"Do you have your seatbelt on?" Tim asked, a cold chill to his voice.

"No, but she-" Tim cut him off.

"Put your damn seatbelt on, or get out of the car," he said. The tone of his voice was enough to make Ziva nervous. She'd never heard Tim use that tone of voice on a coworker, if at all.

"Fine!" he said, throwing the belt across him for all of a two year old's temper tantrum.

Ziva continued, a lot more subdued than before, but still mildly reckless. They were at the crime scene a few minutes later, and the four vehicles lined up next to the police and NSA vehicles.

Tim and Elly met up and walked side by side to the incident commander of the moment. He greeted them, and announced himself as Agent Terrence Hadley from the NSA.

"You have to understand," he said quietly as he led them to the bodies that were taped off. "This guy was one of our best analysts. He was supposed to be on vacation, so we weren't missing him. It's like the person who kidnapped him knew that he'd be overlooked."

Elly put his hand on the man's arm to stop him. He looked at McGee and then leaned in. "Are you saying that you think this is an inside job?" he asked.

"Either that or we have a mole," the man said, quiet anger in his voice. The gravity of the situation grew heavier, and all three of them knew this was an incredibly time sensitive situation.

They arrived at the bodies, and McGee snapped on gloves and pulled out his fingerprint scanner. He bent over to get a positive ID on their Marine, but the tags around his neck didn't lie. The man was Sergeant Raphael Davis. A few more clicks, and they knew he'd been stationed in Norfolk. The other man they were told was NSA Analyst Mark Piper.

McGee tried not to blanch at the weird angles each finger of the man's right hand were bent at, and focused on trying to be the leader he needed to be. The rest of their teams were standing around waiting for directions.

"How many people do you have working this?" he asked Hadley.

"I have two agents on the way in. One worked very closely with Mark, and she's going to be devastated to learn it's him. The other doesn't know him at all, and is a trusted friend of mine. Neither really have crime scene experience, but they're the only two I can trust right now."

"Understood," Tim said with a nod. "Do you want us to take the crime scene and autopsies? We're prepared to do so." Hadley looked behind him to see all of the NCIS agents and staff standing at the ready.

"Wow, I'd say you are. Might as well, but we'll work side by side in case anything triggers an idea."

"Makes sense," Elly said, glancing at Tim. Tim raised his hand and waved the rest of the team down to join them. They all came forward, some with packs, some with kit boxes, and two stretchers. They wasted no time in getting to work.

Tim stood with Hadley. "I know it's probably sensitive information, but what can you tell me about what kind of research and analysis Mark was doing?" He had his pen poised over his notepad, and Hadley sighed.

"He was a Middle East analyst. I don't know what files he was specifically working on, but he and Bishop worked together. She may know when she gets here. They were each other's professional yin and yang. Putting those two in a room together could accomplish feats unbelieved. And they are different as night and day. Just wait until you meet her." He paused and sighed. "But I guess you'd have to have known Mark to know."

"What was the last project they worked on together?" Tim asked.

"I don't know. I'm not their supervisor, though I used to be a couple of years ago. I'm in the field more now. Starting to wish I was back behind a desk."

Tim tried not to sigh in frustration. He knew there were things he wasn't going to be told during this investigation, but he couldn't tell if he was being played, or if it was true that Hadley didn't know anything about the current assignments his former agent was working on.

Another vehicle pulled up, and he watched as two people got out. One was an older man that reminded Tim a little of Mike Franks, and the other was a petite blonde woman. They came down the slope towards the scene, and just as they approached the floodlight Ziva was setting up turned on. Tim's eyes locked on the woman's face as she realized whose body was along the water's edge.

"Oh my God," she said. He saw her put her hand on her stomach and hold back whatever was trying to come up. He moved towards her, and Hadley joined him.

"Bishop, I'm so sorry," the older man said. "I didn't want to tell you on the phone, and I didn't have anyone else I could trust on this case."

She covered her mouth a moment, and shook her head as she visibly breathed deeply to control herself.

"What happened?" she finally choked out, her voice surprisingly calm.

"He's been tortured and executed," Hadley said quietly. Bishop nodded slowly, then moved past them to go to the dead man. They followed her, and the rest of the team stopped to watch her approach. She moved to stand next to him, then crouched. She squinted at the wounds, and her head tilted to the side.

"Doctor?" she asked Jimmy who was probing the body for time of death.

"Oh, I'm not a doctor yet," he said with a blush and a smile. "Just an assistant. Please call me Jimmy."

She nodded at him. "Jimmy, can you pull back his collar for me?" she asked.

He pulled it back gently with his gloved hand exposing a deep carving of some sort in the back of his shoulder.

"I've seen this before," she said. "Or at least read about it. There's a sect of home grown terrorists that use this kind of carving as a calling card. It's _supposed_ to prevent the soul of the man from escaping and trying to find peace, trapping it in the body for eternity."

Greg knelt down next to her, and looked at it as he took a couple of photos. "Interesting. Despicable, but interesting."

Bishop sighed. "Yeah, but it strays so far from the religion they claim to be following that it's laughable."

"I'm Greg Parke," he said with a small smile.

"Ellie Bishop," she said, nodding at him and snapped a picture of the cuts with her phone. "Mark was my partner."

"Oh! I'm so sorry," Greg said, standing. He waited a moment and then decided to go back to focusing on the case rather than her emotional state. She seemed to be handling it surprisingly well. "So how do you know the carving?" he asked, trying to keep her mind on the technical.

"It's documented. Mark and I cover Middle Eastern communications, and that includes their liaisons with American-made terrorists. It's more particular with a sect in New York, though a case was heard of in Baltimore." Ned happened to move close enough to hear that, and he looked at Elly.

"Has anyone let the Director know what's going on here yet?" he asked him quietly.

"I'm pretty sure McGee has, but I'll check with him." Elly got closer to Tim who had just hung up his phone, and spoke softly. "What did the Director have to say about this?"

"That he wanted to see how well you play with the NSA," he said, standing up and moving a mere breath away from Elly. "He wants you to be an interagency liaison for this case."

Elly's eyes got wide for a moment before he blinked and nodded. "Okay then," he said. He looked at the older man standing with Agent Hadley and moved to join them. The men looked up at him as he approached, and he tried to project as much maturity as possible.

"Hi there," he greeted, a grim line to his lips. He reached out his hand for the older man that had arrived with the blonde. "I'm Special Agent Elijah Critten, NCIS." The man shook his hand in a firm shake, and nodded.

"I'm Agent Evan Spalding, Threat Analyst. I take it you've met the illustrious Terrence Hadley."

Elly quirked up the corner of his mouth in a grin. "Yes, momentarily. I know Agent McGee asked a couple of questions already, but I have a boatload more. Would you prefer to talk here or somewhere else?" He didn't give them the option of not talking, but gave them the illusion of choice by asking where the talking was going to take place. A political effort he'd learned years earlier, and was excited to see worked here.

"Would you want to come back to headquarters with us, or do you have a lockdown room at NCIS?" Spalding asked.

"We do have rooms that can be locked down. The bodies are coming back to our building. If anything is found, we'd be close enough for a quick response, but any paperwork and files needed are probably at your place."

"True," Hadley said. "NSA it is then."

Elly thought quickly. He should probably bring someone with him. He thought through the entire combined team, and though it was a hard call, he picked Greg. He needed to know if he was being played, and if this Bishop chick was really friends with their victim it wouldn't hurt to have someone with a psych background on hand. Not to mention it would keep Ned free to do his research unhindered if he wasn't tethered to them.

"Let me grab my partner, and we'll follow you over."

"Sounds good," Hadley said. "Hey Bishop!" he called. The blonde stood up, and turned around at the older man's beckon.

Elly walked past her with a grim attempt at a smile, and tapped McGee and Greg.

"Hey. I'm going to steal Greg, and go follow Hadley and his people back to NSA to go over things. I'll be in touch as I find out more info."

"Great," McGee said, grateful that he wouldn't have to play the politics. "Parke, give me your camera and go with Elly."

Elly looked up at Ned, and gave him a private smile. Ned smiled back, and returned to sketching the scene. Elly and Greg walked slowly so they could chat for a brief moment.

"What's going on?" Greg asked quietly.

"Vance wants me to play interagency liaison apparently with the NSA. I need someone who can see through the bullshit. If you smell something funny, pull on your ear."

Greg chuckled, then realized that Elly was serious.

"And if I'm in need of reining in, kick me or tell me," Elly said as they approached the three waiting for them up on the hill. "Folks, this is Agent Greg Parke." They all introduced themselves, and Elly realized that Bishop's first name was Ellie as well, and he made it a point to try to comment on it when the timing was better. Meanwhile, Greg noticed that Elly didn't mention anything about his profiling background, and he wondered if it was strategic or situational.

"Stay close," Hadley said. "Your badges won't be enough to get you past the gate. I'll have to vouch for you coming in behind me."

"Will do," Elly said. They all piled into their vehicles and caravanned out of the lot, leaving the rest of the team to take care of the bodies.

And deal with the bodies they did.

Photos were taken and sketches were drawn. The time of death was called at shortly before midnight. A little early for a body dump, which Jimmy announced less than elegantly, but Ned pointed out that there was a bad storm around that time, so it probably was the perfect cover, _and_ probably washed away the best of the evidence. Though with the carvings, and the fact that the bodies never made it into the actual water, it was obvious that they were intended to be found.

They packed up and headed back to the Yard. It wasn't a long trip, thankfully, and Tim decided to drive this time. They bounced ideas off of each other in the car, both Ned and Sommers in the backseat this time.

"Do you think it would help if I reached out to any of my contacts?" Ned asked.

He noticed Ziva shaking her head no slightly, but it was Tim that answered. "Not yet. We need to find out what the NSA knows first. However, if you have any way of covertly putting your ear to the ground to find out anything about those carvings, that could be helpful."

"Oh, I can definitely do that," Ned said, trying to hold back his glee at the thought of being useful in a big way. He had just the place to go to see if anyone knew about the carvings without ever actually asking. He suddenly regretted taking his deep web apps off his phone. He rarely used them, but it was moments like this one that he needed them. They'd be to the office by time he got them downloaded again so he decided to wait. He made a mental note to put them back on when he had a minute though.

Sommers watched the three of them, and Tim saw it in the rearview mirror. He needed to figure out something he could sick their problem child on that would be both productive and out of the way. He didn't trust him with the victims' families. General backgrounds and finances then. He started handing out the assignments around the vehicle, and they all nodded their agreement, even Sommers.

He took it upon himself to take the evidence to Abby. He knew that she'd have a pot of coffee brewing, and he needed a cup badly. Sure enough, when he walked into the lab, he could smell its tantalizing aroma.

"Hey Abs," he said, plopping the box down.

"Shhhhh!" she said, holding up her hands. "Amira is asleep in my office on the futon."

"Sierra hasn't come to get her yet?" he asked.

"She had a flat tire. She'll be here soon. She had a spare, but the spare hadn't been used in so long that it was flat too and needed air. Roadside assistance is coming."

"Okay," Tim said, wishing he could do something for her, but knowing that they had bigger worries right now. "I need some coffee."

"I figured you would," she said with a smile. "I have cups, sugar, and creamer waiting for you and anyone else you'd like to send this way. Except for Sommers. If you want to take him some, that's fine, but I don't want him in my lab."

"I wouldn't wish that on you, Abs," he said with a raised eyebrow to himself as he poured a cup of life.

"Not if you ever wanna get laid again," she said with a smirk as she looked over the box of evidence. Tim chuckled and joined Abby, drinking tentatively from the cup to make sure it wasn't too hot. "What have you brought me?"

"Not too much, unfortunately. The rain last night washed away most of the good stuff. But I got their clothes from Ducky, and we have their shoes. The NSA analyst had indentations on his nose that looked like he wore glasses on a regular basis, but they weren't anywhere to be found."

"Could be just the slip up you need if they fell off somewhere in transport inconspicuously. Could be intentional if the agent knew he wasn't going to make it. Breadcrumbs."

"Good thinking," Tim said, pulling a bag from the box and holding it up. "They didn't take any of the stuff in this, unless there was cash in it." It was a simple black leather wallet. "Found it on our Marine. All of the cards he has in there makes me think he wasn't much of a cash person, but I could be wrong."

"If they left that behind then they _really_ wanted to make sure there was nothing that could be traced back to them. Did the analyst have his wallet?"

"No," Tim said, his eyebrow rising again as he connected the dots.

"Then he may have gotten rid of that at some point as well. He's leaving breadcrumbs. You need to find that wallet."

"That's not all we need to find if he's leaving a trail behind for us." He picked up a bag that only had one gym shoe. "He only had his right one on. His left was nowhere to be found."

"Wow…" Abby said, taking the bag from Tim. "Those are… certainly conspicuous!" The shoe was neon yellow and green, and they stood out against the metal evidence table. They pulled a couple more bags out. "I take it this is his shirt?" A green shirt with yellow Hawaiian print flowers on it was desecrated with blood.

"Yeah," Tim said. "NSA Agent Hadley said that their guy was supposed to be on vacation."

"Ah," Abby said, quietly wondering if he dressed like this all the time, or if it was situational because of his holiday. "Well, I got this stuff, but I'm going to put the blood covered stuff back in the box until Amira leaves. Shouldn't be much longer."

"Good call. I'd forgotten she was back there. Moments like this I'm really glad she's not a morning person!" he kept his voice down, but his expression conveyed the extent of that relief.

"Yeah, really. Refill before you go," she said. Tim nodded and took the lid off his cup. A minute later he was walking out of the lab.

"Love you, Abs," he said casually.

"Love you, too, Timmy." She smiled at his retreating back, then shook her head as she dove into her work on scraping trace materials off the bottom of the gym shoe.

Tim took a deep breath as he got onto the elevator and thought about what needed to be done next. Quick backgrounds on the two men should be ready for him when he got up to the bullpen, and that would decide which path he took. His mind ran in circles as he thought of where each possibility led. It was still running when he entered his side of the bullpen and called everyone to brief.

Ned came to join them on their side of the bullpen, and they reported out on what they knew. Ziva had tackled the profile of the NSA agent, and Sommers was doing the profile of their Marine. Ned was anxious to share what he'd found out, too.

Sommers started, giving a blasé rundown on Davis. He was 38, single, just got back from a tour in Iraq, and didn't seem to have any connections to the deceased NSA agent. No friends or family connections, and from what he could see, no work connections, but that was going to take more digging.

"What about his finances?" Tim asked.

Sommers shrugged a little. "I'm waiting on warrants to get into his bank accounts." Tim raised an eyebrow, but decided not to indulge Sommers with the secret of their constant trend of hacking as the warrants are being written. He didn't trust him not to raise chaos.

Ziva took the clicker from Sommers, and started in on her more indepth description of NSA Analyst Mark Piper. He was divorced, two kids that were grown, and a penchant for taking island getaways. He travelled two or three times a year for a week at a time, and there was no pattern to the locations. Most recently, a few months prior, he'd been in the Dominican Republic. Before that it was Costa Rica, and before that it was the British Virgin Islands. He was currently supposed to be in St. Thomas, but obviously he never made his flight.

Ziva noted that she'd seen his most recent plane ticket was booked by a travel agent, and she had left a voicemail at the agency for a callback. His finances weren't spectacular, but they weren't suspicious either. She noted that the ex-wife and son lived in California, but his daughter lived in New York. She finished it up by stating that she hadn't reached out to them for questions, because she figured the NSA would be doing that.

Tim nodded and Sommers gave her a look that indicated he thought she was brown nosing by having more information than him. Ziva paid him no mind, but Ned had to restrain himself from punching the guy when he saw. He was distracted from his anger by his glee though when the clicker landed in his hand and he presented his discovery. As predicted, it wasn't hard at all to find information on the carvings found on the body.

"This is a snippet of what I've found out. There are at any given time hundreds of people on this message board." He clicked and brought up the screen capture he'd done of the message board. It was in Arabic, and he looked at Ziva to see that she was taking it all in, being the only other person amongst them that could read it. There was a picture of a somewhat similar, yet simpler, carving as the one on their victims, only it was in a wall on a house in a desert town.

"This is the Arabic letter _nun_. It's like the English N. There have been rumors for a long time that these are being put on the houses of Christians in Iraq, but this thread shows people bragging about doing it in this village. The village then tells the people to convert to Islam, pay a really hefty tax, or die. Whenever our troops try to confirm this activity, it's denied, but there are villagers begging for help. The village leaders insist that the _nun_ is placed on the house by the occupants as a symbol of pride, announcing themselves as Nazarene, or followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

"Now, what's on our victims is a bastardized version by a group of homegrown terrorists. They've made up this myth that carving the _nun_ with the shortened shahada over it will trap a non-Muslim's soul in their body. This homegrown group is trying to connect with ISIS, and they're not at all organized. Real jihadists laugh at them. Imagine a group of teenagers getting together under a cause just to feel like they are a part of something, and then making up their own rules, trying to develop or design something cool enough to be noticed by the big bad ISIS so that they'll let them into their club."

Tim and Ziva nodded at him but Sommers just looked bored. "These guys are trying to find something big enough to be let in to play with the big boys. They're contacting anyone and everyone to try to find their way in. This thread here is a running compilation of criticism of the "baby jihadists", and some go as far as to say that the carvings are actually desecrating a person's body, and that by trapping the soul, if the carving does, keeps the soul from being taken to the afterlife for judgement."

"Do they have a name?" Tim asked.

" _'atfal Alnabii_ , or Children of the Prophet. I'm seriously wondering if this group might actually be teenagers. If it wasn't for the fact that they took down a _Marine,_ I'd put money on it. But to subdue two grown men, one with military training? And Piper wasn't helpless. He's had FLETC training. As you could expect from an analyst though, his fighting scores weren't that great."

"What if they used their childlike innocence to lure them into an ambush though?" Ziva asked.

Tim nodded. "True. One is a Marine, and one has kids of his own. There's a good chance that they both could have easily been told by one of the kids that their friend was hurt, and then ambushed. We'll have to wait for Ducky's autopsy reports to see if they were hit over the head or drugged."

"Have you heard from Elly yet?" Ned asked Tim.

"Which one?" he asked with a small huff of air.

"I know! That's so weird!" Ned exclaimed. "Did you two catch that the NSA chick was named Ellie, too?"

Ziva's expression told him that she had not, but Sommers ignored the question. Ned thought that he looked like a petulant child standing there, too cool to be bothered with the world around him. _Funny,_ he thought. _That's exactly what I'd expect from one of the kids we're talking about possibly being in this terrorist group. If we can extract his opinion, it may actually be worth something on this case._ He tucked the thought away for a time where it might be needed.

"But no, I haven't heard from Elly yet. I was going to text him after this and see if they could meet me in MTAC. Ziva, take Sommers and search our Marine's home. Let me know when you're finished. We might need you to meet at the NSA agent's house to search that as well. It looks like neither of their agents have any crime scene experience. Analysts typically don't."

"What am I doing?" Ned asked.

"You're coming with me into MTAC."

"Of course. MTAC. My very own dark cave," Ned turned, and headed to his desk. He started printing off things that he might want to take with him as he listened to everyone else doing their thing. He was ready to go upstairs before Tim even said his name. He had two folders and a notebook, and of course, his favorite pen.

They made their way up the stairs to the room, scanned in, and headed down the ramp.

"Hey, Evelyn," Ned called.

"Hey, Dorney!" she said with a smile. "What brings the two of you in?" She turned back around to her boards as something lit up in front of her. "Would this call from the NSA be for the two of you?" she asked.

"That's us," Ned said with a smile.

"Lock us down please, Evelyn" Tim said.

The screen came up in front of them showing the lockdown protocol activating for the room, then an image appeared of a conference room with the expected agents.

"Hello everyone," Ned said, his MTAC persona falling into place like a perfect brick. "Our room is on lockdown."

Hadley took point on their end for the conversation, and Elly was glad. Ned in MTAC was a completely different Ned than shared in the bullpen. It was much more like the Ned he was in the bedroom, and suddenly Elly's mouth had gone dry. They hadn't really thought this through. He was going to have to pull himself together. He suddenly realized that he was being a different Elly right now than the one in the bullpen. He was Elijah here, and a liaison for the agency with the NSA. It was even more important that he keep his cool.

"We're on lockdown as well," Hadley replied. "We've been discussing what we can about the most recent files that Mark was working on. Ellie has been cleared to read all of us in on the data they've had to a certain point. It's fairly enlightening."

"Great," Ned said. "We've uncovered a little bit of information ourselves. It's probably not much compared to what you have though, so would you like to share what you've put together first?"

The small woman was sitting cross-legged in the seat closest to the camera, and she began briefing them all on the most recent communique that she and Mark had been working through.

"We've noticed that there is an uptick in chatter about using vulnerable US jihadist groups as a means to obtain needed information. They're considered dispensable, and they're always desperate to prove themselves. The larger terrorist organizations in the Middle East have been hesitant to use them though because they're so unstable. Not only that, but many of them don't subscribe to true Islamic teachings, as they see it. A lot of the communications we're finding are saying that there's some kind of information that they need badly enough to be willing to branch out and use these groups."

"You say "groups", Ned said. "How many are you talking about?"

"There's really not as many as you'd think. There are only about three recognized _organized_ groups, and even then, organized just means that there's a leadership structure in place. They are as small, or smaller, than an urban gang, and they have very similar roots. There is one bigger, nationwide organization, but it isn't being targeted in these communications because they're already tied into ISIS and al-Qaida. They're not considered dispensable."

"You're right. I would've thought there were a lot more," Tim said with a raised eyebrow.

"There are a lot of _individuals_ that consider themselves jihadists, but they're usually loners. There are also a number of _disorganized_ groups that start and then crumble because it's more about power, and they can't develop a leadership structure.

"The biggest draw in the US for homegrown terrorism is actually white supremacy and extremist Christianity. And of course traditional gangs are very terroristic, but since they are usually based on neighborhood or racial divisions and criminal activity, not political, ethnic, or religious zeal, they aren't considered terrorists by most agencies, or individuals for that matter."

"True," Parke said from behind them. "And the targets tend to be different. Gangs usually stay localized. They like to control their area and all of the people in it, and they like to control their trade. Though they tend to rule with fear tactics, they aren't about destroying the major government or instilling fear into the heart of the nation. Terrorists groups are."

Bishop and Hadley turned to look at Parke as he spoke, both with a look that said they hadn't expected that commentary from him. Ned put the pieces together immediately that he'd been a silent watcher so far in the conversations, and he was keeping his background on the down low. He made a mental note not to give him away.

"So there is someone communicating with a group in particular?" he asked Bishop. She nodded.

"In a way. There is a go-between. An individual known as Ghurab."

"Crow?" Ned asked, trying to remember if he had the word right in translation.

Bishop nodded, and she and Hadley exchanged another look. That one conveyed that they shouldn't take these NCIS folks for granted. Their talents were unexpected.

"Doesn't the crow have some kind of symbolism with death in Islam?" Ned asked.

"Yes," Bishop answered. She opened her mouth to speak again, but Parke spoke up.

"Two brothers, one kills the other, doesn't know what to do with his brother's body, and a crow demonstrates by burying another crow."

Bishop raised her eyebrows, then turned back to the screen. "Basically," she said. "We haven't been able to figure out who Crow is. We're suspecting he's our possible mole."

"What kind of steps have you taken so far to ferret him out?" Tim asked.

"We've been tracking him for months, but we didn't think he was local, nonetheless an NSA agent," Bishop said with a tightlipped expression of worry and embarrassment. "Our reports get sent on to other agencies that do the actual investigations. We track what we can, but the FBI or CIA usually takes over."

"Who have you been using to locate Crow?" Ned asked.

They could already see Elly nodding in the background. "The FBI," Hadley said. "Since we believe this person is domestic."

"What was your analysis of him before?" Ned said. "Can you share the documents?"

"I wrote the report. I'll be happy to share it with you. I've already had someone look at it to confirm any redactions that had to be made."

"Do you have any research related to this situation at all that Agent Piper was working on?" he asked her.

"Yes, but they are being checked for necessary redactions right now. I'll send copies as soon as I can."

"Thank you," Tim answered for them. "Agent Critten told me that you're searching Agent Piper's house. Are you questioning his family for any information?"

Hadley nodded. "We have agents in New York and San Diego who are reaching out to Mark's family to see if there's anything they can tell us. They're grieving right now, so it's not going anywhere."

Ned nodded and noted this in his notebook. "So who is Crow communicating with?"

"A small band of misfits in the New York area. We haven't been able to track any of them. They're very technologically savvy, and they've been able to block everything we've done so far to look for them. Agent Critten said he and Agent McGee may be able to take a crack at seeing if they could find anything useful. I'll provide what I can."

"Is this group in New York called 'atfal Anabii?" Ned asked, looking up just in time to catch whatever reactions he could.

Bishop's was obviously confused and surprised. Hadley looked over at her in concern. She leaned in, her arms on the arms of the chair and her mouth slightly open as she squinted at Hadley then back at the screen. "What do you know about them?" she asked.

"Just what we've been able to scrounge off of a message board this morning," Ned said casually, making sure not to give away his discomfort at her reaction being slightly accusatory.

"Which board?" she said.

"Well, there's a couple of them," he said honestly, keeping his spine. "If you want to come over I'll be glad to show you."

"Yeah, I'd like that," she said, looking at Hadley and getting the nod. She got to her feet immediately.

"We'll pack up whatever documents we can, and we'll see you all in an hour," Elly said, getting to his feet. He was relieved to be getting back on his turf. He'd been playing the role as well as he could, but it would be much more comfortable to be behind his own desk doing what he loved the most- tracking these bastards with his tech skills.

"Before you go," Ned said, speaking up and interrupting their departure. "Who is the FBI agent you've passed this intel on to?"

"Jo Keo. She's a specialist in this kind of thing," Hadley said. "She's been contacted. She was going to meet here this afternoon, but we can arrange to meet at your building instead."

"Might as well have everyone make themselves at home," Elly said with a grin.

"We'll see you all soon," Tim said. Once the screen went blank he turned to Ned who was scribbling furiously in his notebook. "You certainly know how to make an impression." His smirk assured Ned that the comment wasn't sour.

Ned shrugged. "They need to know that we don't mess around," Ned said. "I've learned over the past couple of months from sitting in on briefings in this room that a lot of the other organizations look at us like we're the baby brother of the alphabet soup. The Director certainly knows how to change that opinion quickly, and I've picked up a couple of things."

"I'll say," Tim said with a small chuckle. "When you mentioned the Children of the Prophet, in Arabic nonetheless, I thought Bishop was going to crawl through the camera to get a better look at you."

"She did look a little surprised," Ned said, still scribbling in his notebook as he turned to head for the door. "Thanks Evelyn!" he called. Tim went to follow him and as they approached the door he realized that Ned was writing his notes in Arabic. He raised an eyebrow at that and decided to ask him about it later. Now didn't look like the time since he was so intent on his note taking.

They headed down the stairs, Ned finally looking up from the notebook, but his pen was still poised in the air, ready to resume when the danger of the steps had passed. They went their separate ways, and Tim went to his desk. He thought for a moment about what to do, then decided he was going to have to forgo the online sleuthing to play Gibbs and go check in with Ducky and Abby for any updates. He wanted to be armed with as much information as possible when the NSA team showed up. He sighed and got to his feet. This was going to be a long case.

*********WDYG?********

"What do you mean Mark's dead?!"

Ellie sighed as she talked to her husband on the phone from the small office she never spent any time in. She hated it because it was soundproof and silent, which made her feel like she was suffocating. She only came in when she absolutely had to for important conversations. This was one of them.

"He's been executed and tortured. First glance showed multiple cuts, broken bones, and bruises. I'm heading over to NCIS now to work with their team. The other man executed with him was a Marine."

"And you're trusting Navy cops to lead you through this investigation?! We have our own agents! Agents that are much higher up the clearance ladder than theirs! We can't chance the wrong information getting into the general public."

"You think I don't know that?!" she snapped. Her fingers went to the throbbing at her temple as she began to work on the headache. "I'm actually really impressed with them so far. They have access to information that I had no idea they could possibly know. They seem to be keeping up without us, and if I'm not there with them they just might pass by us. I need to keep my finger on the pulse of the information, and right now, they're able to get into the field and find it. So for now, I'm with them."

Jake sighed. "I just want you safe."

Ellie smiled. "I know. Which is why I'm not biting your head off for not trusting me to know the limits of what I can and cannot share."

"I'm a lawyer. That's just the job coming out. You know that I trust you more than anything."

"Yeah, I do."

"So who is doing your redactions?" he asked.

"Marion and Hadley. Though I have some raw files with me I may need to redact myself. I'll call you if I run into a conundrum."

"Are these your only copies?"

"I have the digitals."

"Okay. Just promise me that you'll stay safe."

"I'll do my best," she said as she slipped the files she needed into her bag. "I'll be home when I can."

"Text me and let me know tonight where things stand. I may have to head to L. A. in the morning for an issue they're having out there."

"Okay. Will do. Got to go. Love you."

"Love you, too."

Ellie slipped her phone in her back pocket and headed for the door. She was anxious about what these NCIS people seemed to know about. A lot of that stuff on the 'atfal Anabii was seriously classified. The group was loud enough though that she guessed they could've heard something through some kind of communique, but she thought they'd squashed all of that so they could follow the group back to Crow. She was a little freaked out that they knew. Hopefully their source would be exposed soon. She would feel much better when she knew. The idea that their leak may be putting information out there on a public level had her stomach tied in knots. Something felt wrong in her gut, and she knew she wouldn't rest until it worked itself out, for better or worse.

*********WDYG?*********

Tony had switched seats with Jethro halfway through the flight. He'd stated he needed a change in scenery. Jethro just smiled and looked at him with laughter in his eyes. Now he sat with his book on the aisle as Tony looked out the window at the ocean, snapping photos with his phone. There was nothing below them except water as of yet, but soon they'd be over France where they'd transfer planes for a much quicker flight. The sun was setting though and it was beautiful. He watched it for a minute before Tony leaned his head against the wall and stared out the window with a sigh.

"Penny for your thoughts," Jethro said softly.

Tony turned to him with a sad smile. "Just missing Amira."

Jethro chuckled. "You've only been apart from her for a day."

"Exactly! A whole entire day!" Tony exclaimed quietly. "I'm still a fairly new father, and though we've been separated before, I knew I could just get in my car and be to her in twenty minutes. This is different."

Jethro laid his hand on Tony's thigh. "It's going to be okay."

"I know, but I still miss her." Tony smiled and laid his hand on Jethro's.

"I do, too."

"You do?"

Jethro nodded with a smile. "But I know she's perfectly safe with our family."

Tony nodded back, but sighed. "Yeah. With everyone protecting her she's never going to have to worry about so much as a splinter without getting the royal treatment."

"We can handle splinters on our own," Jethro said with a chuckle, letting his thumb caress the back of Tony's hand.

"But we're not there. So if she gets a splinter-"

"She'll have Abby and Tim there expertly extracting it with a pair of tweezers," Jethro said with a bright smile.

"Can you just imagine Abby wearing her goggles, latex gloves and holding a magnifying glass over her little palm?"

Both men chuckled.

"It's going to be okay," Jethro reassured. "You should try to get some rest."

"Why? By time we get there it will be time for bed."

All Jethro had to do was cock and eyebrow at Tony and he understood that yes, it would indeed be time for bed, but there would be no sleeping. Tony's eyes widened in understanding, and then he smiled as he pulled the blanket back over him and reclined his seat.

Jethro chuckled and tried to go back to his book, but all he could think about was the little girl they'd left behind with their teams and how much he was going to miss her that week.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Elly and Greg guided Bishop upstairs and into the bullpen. They huddled in on Tim's side where she was introduced properly to Tim and Ned.

"It's good to meet you," she said with a tight attempt at a smile. "I just wish it was under different circumstances."

"Definitely," Ned said with a sigh.

"You said you would show me the message boards?" she asked, getting straight to work.

"Come on over. I'm sure Tony won't mind you using his desk. Just don't touch the stapler." He turned to go around the divider, and Bishop looked between the guys with a raised eyebrow before following.

Ned was already pulling up the message boards on his computer again as Bishop sat her bag down on Tony's desk and scanned it for the stapler. Once she saw the Mighty Mouse emblem on it she took a peek at Ned, then back. She nodded once to herself as she wondered how weird the NCIS team may be after all, and turned to Ned for guidance on their next steps.

"We can either put these up on the plasma, or you can come sit near me. It's up to you on how secure you think we should keep them. I always keep them little screen, and snip little things I want to show on big screen." Ned looked at her, trying to tap into his MTAC persona, and finding it surprisingly easy.

"I'll join you," she said, pulling Tony's chair across to his desk. She sat cross-legged in it once she was in position, and leaned forward as Ned showed her the site he was using.

"Okay," she said with a nod. "Yeah, I haunt this board, too. My Arabic isn't so great, but it gets better every day."

He showed her the thread that he had shown the others the snippet of, and she nodded again as she understood where he's gotten the information. He switched to a different message board, and he glanced over at her as he heard her breath hitch for a moment.

"Wait a minute!" she said quietly, leaning on his desk and staring from him to the screen again with her mouth hanging open. "How do you have access to this?! I've been trying to get on it for a year!"

Ned re-grounded himself in the MTAC persona, and shrugged. "I have contacts."

Bishop sat back in her chair, her hands on the armrests, grasping them until her knuckles were white. "Okay, but I guess my question is, _why_ do you have access to this?"

Ned turned to her, his face stone. "I'm a tactical specialist for MTAC operations. The need arose in an operation, I tapped a contact for info, was led here. Why do any of us have access to any of the things we have access to? Because we need it. And once you get in on something like _this_ , you keep the line of communication flowing. You don't let it go dormant, or you risk losing it."

Elly and Greg had joined them on their side of the bullpen after a briefing with Tim. Elly rolled his eyes. "I bet I know the contact," he said with a little too much snarky attitude. He scrunched up his nose as he got to work running searches on his computer.

Ned leaned into Bishop's space and whispered. "Elly doesn't like it when we mention my contacts."

"Elly? You mean Elijah."

"Oh, we call Elijah Elly," Ned said, sitting back up.

"Really?" she asked, looking at Elly.

He nodded. "Yeah. It was my mom's nickname for me when I was little. She was killed when I was three. The team has kind of adopted me, and now everyone here calls me Elly. E-L-L-Y."

"Huh," Bishop said, trying to make out these weird people. She turned back to Ned, leaned in, and whispered, "Why doesn't he like you mentioning your contacts?"

Ned nodded understandingly. "One of my contacts is an ex-boyfriend. Elly is my fiancé."

"If you two are engaged, how are you allowed on the same team?" she asked both of them.

"Ned's not my subordinate. And we have very different specialties. I'm the Senior Field Agent in title only. I specialize in techno babble, searches and what not, and lately interagency affairs, and Ned specializes in tactical operations, and dabbles in a little psychological profiling now and then."

"He's being modest," Ned jumped in. "He's an expert at locating people and things. Give him a whiff of a paper trail, and he's all over it. And he's currently designing a database platform that can be used throughout all agencies to locate correlations between cold cases."

"I thought Agent McGee was the Senior Field Agent?" she said, the confusion written on her face.

Elly nodded. "He is, of the MCRT. I'm the Senior Field Agent of this team. Our team leaders are off on their honeymoon."

"Okay then," Bishop said with wide eyes and a deep breath escaping her chest. She was feeling overwhelmed and wasn't sure, but she thought she may have bitten off more than she could chew by coming over to NCIS alone. "So what can you tell me about what you've found on this message board. What's your take on this?"

"Well, the writing of the Americans is really broken, basic, beginner's Arabic. It even has some English thrown in now and then. So these are converts. They aren't natural Arabic speakers, and if they grew up with the Quran they would have at least enough of the language down to read the text, because as you know, reading it in Arabic is the only real way to appreciate it."

Bishop nodded. This was typical of what she'd seen.

"The difference though that I'm seeing between those claiming to be a part of the _'atfal Alnabii_ and most of the rest of the people I've observed on this board is the language pattern."

"What do you mean?" Bishop asked, looking back and forth between Ned and the computer again.

"They don't seem to be getting any better. And the word choices they use correspond to words that a younger generation uses in the United States than the others on the board. It's almost like they're children, or at least 15-20 years old. They say things like, _alquzam,_ which I've figured out is their equivalent to "troll", which doesn't translate quite right. In Arabic it's more like a pygmy, but it's _used_ in the English way that we use "troll" on the internet. To troll someone's Facebook or Twitter accounts, you know, that kind of trolling."

Bishop nodded as she thought about that. "Come to think of it, I can see what you mean. Some of the communications I've received are in English between The Children and Crow, and they do sound completely different. Not necessarily stupid or dumb, but immature." She chewed on her bottom lip and thought. "Why haven't I thought of that before?"

"Maybe because you thought that no kid in today's world would be stupid enough to get caught up in stuff like this?" Ned asked with raised eyebrows and a shrug.

"Or maybe I was just too naïve, and thought that kids wouldn't be evil enough," she said with another sigh. "Okay, so what if they _are_ kids? That would explain the name that they've chosen."

Ned nodded with a sympathetic sigh. "And now we're hunting down kids."

"It's a theory at least," Greg said from his desk where he'd been eavesdropping.

"An unfortunate, but realistic theory," Bishop said. "I think I'm going to need some Coke."

Ned looked at her with a single raised eyebrow, and wondered for a moment who in the hell this chick was sitting next to him.

"Do you guys have a soda machine around here?" she asked.

"Ahhh," Ned said, then nodded and got up to show her where the breakroom was, feeling more than a little stupid for his thoughts that she was wanting cocaine. He showed her the vending machines, and pulled money out of his pocket to get him and Elly some Starbursts and decided on another Mountain Dew for each of them.

They were about to leave the breakroom when a hand on Ned's arm stopped him. Bishop looked towards the doorway and then back at Ned. "So this contact," she said. "Can you connect me so I can get on the board?"

Ned thought for a moment, feeling cornered. His eyes kind of darted around the room in a brief panic, and he took a deep breath. "I can ask my contact, but I'm at his mercy. I doubt he's going to be too happy to hear from me right now."

"Why?" Bishop said, feeling a little bit like she was entering the NCIS gossip train.

"Because I was supposed to meet him last month to exchange information, and my boss came with me. And I think he wanted me there alone."

"Alone? He doesn't trust your judgement on who to introduce to him?"

Ned raised an eyebrow at her, his mouth twisted in that way that said she wasn't getting it.

"OH!" She said, her hand going over her mouth as she held back a laugh. " _Alone._ Right. Got it."

Ned nodded. "Yeah. I'd told him that I'm engaged, but things were always kinda crazy for us, and my boss knew that, so when he heard we were going to meet up he shouldered his way into the meeting, and yeah. You know that iceberg that sunk the Titanic? Felt like that."

"So your boss cock blocked you?" she asked with a snicker.

"Thankfully! I didn't think he'd try anything, but when he reacted so coldly to Tony's presence I realized that there weren't innocent intentions behind the meeting, and the discussion was a bit… chilly."

Bishop was trying not to laugh. "No wonder Critten doesn't like you talking about this guy!"

"Oh, you're not joking! I mean, when I was sitting there with Tony and my ex approached us, he said hi to me, and then introduced himself to Tony, asking if he was my fiancé with this uber-confused look on his face. You should've seen Tony's expression!"

"I'll have to meet your boss sometime," she said with a smile.

"He's great. He and Gibbs number one are like my idols. Personal heroes for sure."

"Gibbs number one?" she asked.

"Yeah, well once they got married Tony took Gibbs' last name, so they're now Gibbs number one, and Gibbs number two. Number one is the original, and number two is Tony."

Bishop suddenly put the pieces together that both of their married bosses were men, and mentally shrugged. "Sounds like a tried and true method. Is it one you and Critten will be using?"

Ned shrugged. "We haven't decided what to do about our last names yet. My family disowned me, his dad disowned him, so we're not really tied to our names except professionally. And already having two Supervisory Special Agent _Gibbses_ in the world is confusing enough. If we _did_ take a mutual last name, it would probably be something different than either of our names."

"I don't blame you," she said. "It's really nice working with your spouse though. My husband is a technical lawyer for the NSA. We have matching clearance so we can talk about almost anything work related, but our jobs are so different that it keeps things interesting."

"Nice!" Ned said, feeling excited to have something personal in common with Bishop. "I love working with Elly! We are always in each other's business, but when we do need time apart, we're both totally cool with it. Like, I went to a move the other day by myself. And Elly has friends in the club scene since he used to be a DJ, and will occasionally go hang out with them without me. It's working really well for us."

Bishop started walking slowly towards the bullpen, and Ned kept pace. "Jake and I sneak away every day we're both in town to this restaurant for lunch. It's our favorite, and it's great to be able to connect with him throughout the day. We keep a healthy social life outside of work that sometimes mixes and mingles, sometimes doesn't. And my family loves him. It's great."

"How long have you two been married now?" Ned asked as they reentered their part of the bullpen.

"Seven years," she said with a grin.

"That's a long time!" he said with surprise as he blindly handed Elly his Dew as he passed his desk. "You don't seem old enough to be married for seven years."

"Yeah, we met in college. He was working on his law degree, and I was studying analytical communications, and we hit it off. We both applied for all sorts of government jobs, but we ended up together at the NSA."

"Interesting," he said as they sat down. "Where else did you apply? Was there something else you wanted to do? I mean analytical communications and the NSA are pretty much peanut butter and jelly."

"Yeah! It's where most of my classmates wanted to go. I wanted something a little different, but I'm happy where I'm at I guess."

"What did you want to do?" Ned asked, leaning on his desk and giving Bishop his full attention. He wasn't sure why, but he really liked her.

"I kinda wanted to be an agent somewhere. I travel the world sometimes, but I don't feel like I'm making a big difference. 95% of my time I spend with my head in a stack of files or in front of a laptop trying to find patterns in speech to indicate that the same people are writing it, and what they could possibly mean. Only one in a hundred of our hypothesis turn out to be accurate, if that. It gets frustrating."

"So you wanted to be an agent, like CIA? FBI?" Greg asked her.

"I even applied here at one point."

"Well, don't make it sound like a last resort or anything," Ned said with a chuckle.

Bishop turned pink and looked at the ceiling for a minute as she chuckled in embarrassment because she realized that she had just said it exactly like it was. "No offense, I just haven't had much in the way of ties to the Navy, and so I didn't feel a connection here. Applied for CGIS, too, but I grew up in Nebraska where the closest body of water was the duck pond in the next farm over."

Ned nodded, taking in Bishop's body language like Greg had taught him. She was open, vulnerable, and yet somehow restrained. He felt proud to have been able to make her feel so comfortable in the hour he'd been working with her. He also had a sense that she was looking for more out of life. He wondered if she might be good at doing some of the stuff he did in MTAC, or at least the prep work for it. He sighed as he thought of that and realized they needed to work.

"So, the kids."

"The kids," she said, her expression turning grim.

*********WDYG?*********

Ziva was trying not to kill Sommers. It was hard. It was _very_ hard. However, despite her fantasies, he was still alive and whining, like always. She'd tried to steer his conversation into more positive waters, but to no avail. She tried turning his whines into questions that he just shrugged off or explained away with immature attempts at justifications for his actions and attitude. Nothing she did seemed to make him realize that he was being a worthless jackass.

Finally, he started bitching about something else, and she went up to him and slapped him hard upside the back of the head. "If you do not have anything constructive to say, stop talking." His expression as he glared at her matched that of a petulant teenage punk being put in his place by someone for the first time, and she wondered if he was ever going to learn anything.

They searched their Sergeant's small apartment, and found no signs of struggle, or anything else that would indicate he had been taken from the location. They found nothing else suspicious. Ziva had snagged a couple of photos of Davis with some people doing work in what appeared to be Iraq or Afghanistan from the shelf. They were in basic wooden black frames, but not all of the people in the photos were in US uniforms.

The other indicator that the Sergeant wasn't taken from his home was that the car was missing. He had a 2002 Mustang registered in his name, and it wasn't anywhere in the parking lot or the carport assigned to his unit number. Ziva used her phone to put the BOLO out for it, knowing that Sommers would've grumbled the entire way through the task, and she would've ended up doing it just to shut him up.

She tried to appeal to Sommers' masculinity, and asked him where men hide things. Sommers' discovered Davis' porn stash, but it was Ziva who discovered where his weapons were hidden around the house.

"If I was hiding weapons like this around the house, I was worried that someone was either going to find them, or someone was going to catch me off guard," she said thoughtfully.

"You think he had enemies?" Sommers asked.

"In war everyone has enemies," she said thoughtfully. They bagged each weapon and tagged it. Thankfully Sommers didn't complain about the task. They printed the doorknobs of the house and collected a few hair samples, but they all appeared to be from the Sergeant.

"Are we done?" Sommers asked as Ziva looked around for anything else that might lead them to a clue.

"One more thing," Ziva said, going over to the home phone. She searched through the caller ID and wrote down all of the numbers in its fifteen number memory bank.

"Can't we just pull the records to find out who called him?" Sommers asked.

"Yes, but that is going to take time. You can do a quick search on these in the car on the way back to the Navy Yard." She ripped the little page out of her notebook and handed it off to Sommers. He rolled his eyes as he took it, then picked up a box with the collected evidence. They headed back to the car, and Ziva rolled her eyes at his back as she closed the door behind them.

They spent the next hour canvassing the neighbors for anything unusual, but came up with nothing. Davis was a hero to his neighbors. He helped the single mom next door with repairs on her car, brought groceries to the old WWII vet across the street every week when he was home, and helped coach intermural soccer for the Boys and Girls Club. No one in his apartment complex had anything bad to say about him. That in and of itself was a red flag to Ziva. There was always someone that didn't like you. Either you took up too many parking spaces, played your music too loud, came in and out at all hours, or had obnoxiously loud sex, but there was always something. Even being too quiet so that you're creepy would have come up, but no one said anything negative about him.

"Okay," Sommers said as he got into the car and slipped his seatbelt on, seeming to finally have learned his lesson. "Is it just me, or is this guy just like, too perfect?"

Ziva was amused that Sommers was being insightful for once. It was one of the rare investigative moments she'd experienced with him since they'd met. "I was thinking the same thing."

"It's like he was so great I want to punch him," Sommers said.

"Everyone has a demon. I wonder what his was," Ziva said as she pulled away from the curb.

"It's not even like he's got some secret fetish or something. I mean, we saw his porn collection. Completely predictable. What was this guy's outlet? Where's his dark side?"

"If you wanted to hide something, but didn't want it found, you wouldn't hide it in your apartment."

"Now you're talking," Sommers said. "Maybe he had a storage unit."

"We're in Norfolk. Maybe he has a boat."

"True. It's like everyone down here has a boat. May not be a yacht, but a fishing boat at least. Could be a good place to store stuff."

"See what you can pull up on his records," she instructed. "If we can check on it before we get out of town, I would like to."

"Bingo," he said a few minutes later, holding up his phone so Ziva could see. "Looks like it's registered at Cobb's Marina."

Ziva pulled over, and called McGee. "McGee, we discovered that Davis had a boat. We're going to go check it out before we come back."

"Good call. I think I'm going to take Elly and go search the NSA agent's house if you're going to be a while. I want to get ahead of this thing. Do you have anything promising from the apartment?"

"Absolutely nothing, which in and of itself is something. This man is too clean. Perfect neighbor. Everyone loves him. There is nothing to indicate any kind of… shadiness."

Tim sighed. "Okay. Try not to read into anything that isn't there. Search the boat, and come home unless something piques your interest, then call me."

"Very well," she said, and hung up to get back on the road.

********WDYG?********

McGee had been listening to Ned, Greg, Elly and Bishop bounce ideas off of each other for the past couple of hours when he came over to get a report out on what they had so far.

"Well, we're really starting to find evidence that these wannabe jihadists are kids," Elly said.

"Or at least young adults," Bishop added as she shifted through her paperwork. "Their linguistic patterns are definitely immature enough to be. I thought before it was just because they weren't very comfortable with the language, but as I'm looking again, I'm seeing it. These posts are either by younger people, or by someone who hangs out with younger people a lot. So a teacher, a coach, a youth counselor, or someone like that."

"And as Bishop analyzes the age factor, we're trying to analyze Crow," Ned said, gesturing to him and Greg. "She's given us a series of his conversations with The Children, as well as others, and we're noticing some things. He's definitely American. His use of the Arabic language is sloppy, but not slang. He's been taught Arabic officially, and he's very comfortable with it in textbook form. His English is very modernized and contains idiom, metaphor, and casual slang, but very mature."

"Be careful McGee, we may lose him to the NSA by time all this is done," Elly said with a grin.

"I wouldn't want to do this fulltime!" Ned said with a daunted look on his face. "But every now and then it's a refreshing challenge."

"So we're looking for an American that speaks English as a first language, Arabic as an additional language, and works at the NSA," McGee summarized.

"For Crow, yes," Greg said.

Elly jumped in. "I've already passed on that information to Agent Hadley. They're currently running through a list of possibilities on their end, and are going to compile a list that meets that description, and send it to Other Ellie to narrow down even further."

"As for The Children," Bishop started. "I see some passages here that might be them gathering at a particular location on a regular basis. It has a word, I think a codename, that I can't make out."

"Let me see?" Ned asked, reaching for it. Bishop had taken to sitting on the floor in front of Ned's desk, her papers spread out around her, computer in her lap. She reached a sheet up, and Ned took a look at it.

"Highlighted in the third paragraph down, second to last line."

" _Burj almuraqaba_ ," rolled off of Ned's tongue, and he squinted at it. "Tower… Control tower, I think?" He turned to his computer, and typed a few things in. A moment later he looked over his desk at Bishop, and handed her back the document. "Control tower or watch tower."

"Now do we take that literally, or metaphorically?" she asked.

"What's the context?" Tim asked. "Should we be worried that they're going to attack a control tower of sorts?"

"No," she said as she looked down at the papers, and then after a moment back up at him. "This is their meeting place. Their safe place that they gather. Not a target."

"That could be a number of places in New York. Plenty of towers to watch from," Greg said with a sigh. "Radio towers, water towers, tall buildings that could be considered towers…"

"Yeah, I'm looking for a way to narrow it down," Bishop said.

"What do you have for us?" Elly asked Tim.

"Abby is still working on the blood on the clothing, but she's pretty sure it's not all our victims'. She also has the Major running tests on the soil samples from their shoes. She did a quick look under the microscope though, and she said that there's sand. The Major will have to determine whether it's sand from the banks around the river or not, but she doesn't think it is."

"Not the beach Mark was planning on going to this week, I can assure you," Bishop said with a sigh.

There were nods from around the room, and then Tim remembered what he and Abby had talked about earlier. "Hey, did Mark wear glasses?" he asked.

"Yeah, he did," Bishop said, looking up at him. "Why?"

"Well he wasn't wearing them when we found him. He also was only wearing one shoe, and his wallet was missing. We're pretty sure that he was leaving breadcrumbs for us to follow."

"He would definitely do that," Bishop said excitedly. "He loved clue games and scavenger hunts. He would do that geocaching game all the time. He was obsessed with it. He made me go with him sometimes, and though the game doesn't really hold much interest for me, the places it would take us did. We'd always end up off the beaten path somewhere."

"This is awesome!" Elly said, sitting down at the computer. "If someone finds his wallet, and tries to use a card, it could lead us to pinpoint a location he's been at in the past week. I've already tracked that he stopped using his cards the last Friday night, so he had to of been taken sometime after that. He was at home that night. He ordered pizza, and had it delivered to his house. Called the Domino's location, and they gave me the number of the driver from that night. He said he delivered the pizza to Mark around 8PM, was tipped well, exchange only took a minute, but he seemed fine. We know he never made it to the airport the next morning. So he was picked up somewhere between 8PM on Friday night and 8AM Saturday morning."

"And he was already dressed like he was going on a trip, Hawaiian print shirt and all, so we can assume that he was taken before he left for the airport or along the way to the airport."

"Oh, yeah. His horrible Hawaiian shirts!" Bishop said with a groan. He would occasionally wear one to work when he was missing the beach. He wasn't wearing one at work on Friday though."

"Good to know," Tim said. "This means that he was wearing the same clothes for a week. That means there's probably a lot of good trace material on the fabric, and if anything is there, Abby will find it."

"I take it Abby is someone in forensics?" Bishop asked.

The guys took turns smiling at each other. "Yeah," Elly said. "When you're ready for a break, I'll take you down to meet her."

"She's a brilliant forensic scientist. One of the best in the business," Ned said very seriously.

"I wouldn't expect anything less," Bishop said with a smile. "You all have certainly shown me your best side since this started."

The guys chuckled. "You haven't even met Gibbs 1 and 2 yet," Greg said with a smirk.

"I've been hearing good things. Hopefully I get the chance," she said.

"Hopefully you won't be here that long," Elly said, then looked up as he realized how that sounded. "Oh! No offense. I just mean hopefully we've wrapped this up before they get back from their honeymoon. They just left this morning, and will be in Italy for a week. If we don't have this wrapped up quickly the Director will have our asses."

"No offense taken," she reassured him. "I was thinking the same thing, but regretfully." She smiled up at Ned who smiled back.

"Elly, has Hadley said anything about searching Agent Piper's house?"

"He said he was going to wait until Agent Keo was available this afternoon."

"I don't want to wait any longer," Tim said, shaking his head.

Elly raised an eyebrow. "What do you want to do?"

"Bishop?" Tim asked. "Will you go with me and Elly to search Mark's house for any evidence? You know him the best it sounds like. You should really be there."

Bishop looked somewhat surprised. "You want me to investigate a potential crime scene with you?"

"It's the only way we're going to be able to do it without stepping on your agency's toes," Elly said bluntly.

"And you'll know things about Mark's habits that Keo won't know because she hasn't worked with him like you have," Greg said. "Things that are out of place, of out of character; things that no one else would notice."

"Sounds sensible," she said. "If Hadley is okay with it."

"Do you want me to call him, or do you want to call him?" Elly asked.

Bishop chewed her bottom lip as she thought. "It would be more convincing coming from me," she said, suddenly feeling an alliance with the people around her in a way she was really enjoying. She got to her feet, and took her phone to move towards the break room.

Elly and Tim exchanged a raised eyebrow, and everyone waited until Bishop was out of earshot before they started talking in shushed tones.

"You know that if she wanted privacy, she's going to talk about us to Hadley," Elly said.

"Oh, definitely," Greg said. "But I believe it's going to be positively. I think she's more afraid that he's not going to talk positively about us, and she'll have to defend us. She is latching on to any offering of socialized working we're offering her. And that stuff she said earlier about wanting to be an agent…"

"She wants to be an agent?" Tim asked, confused.

"She's craving collaboration, for sure," Elly said, looking up at Tim.

"She said she'd originally applied to be an agent at various agencies, and the NSA is the one that picked her up. She'd even applied here." Ned's look seemed to insinuate something, and Tim raised an eyebrow at him.

"What are you thinking?" he asked.

"Well…" Ned looked to Greg and Elly for a bit of encouragement, finding it in their expressions, and looked back at Tim. "You need a fourth, right?" he asked.

"You think Bishop would be a good fit?"

"Hell, I think _we'd_ take her if we could use another teammate, but our roster is full," Elly said. "She's like, wicked smart. You should hear some of the stuff that's come out of her. She's got this textbook thing that reminds me of Ned when he goes all MTAC-ey on us."

Greg nodded. "I'm pretty sure she has some kind of eidetic memory, or something similar. She remembers exactly where things are on every page she reads, she remembers things word for word from reports, and she's recalling things from memory that I wouldn't have storage space for." He tapped his temple.

Tim shrugged. "We'll see how things go," he said. He tried to keep any emotion out of his voice. He was a little skeptical, but he was also intrigued. He'd been listening to the conversations happening across the bullpen, but it was harder to hear Bishop since she'd taken up the unusual position on the floor. The chatter pretty much stayed focused on their case though, so he hadn't interrupted the flow. He was busy chasing a couple of ideas down himself, and he knew he was going to have to report to the Director soon.

He leaned against Tony's desk as they waited for Bishop's return, and it was clear that everyone's thoughts were on what was happening in the next room.

Bishop called Hadley, waiting for the ringing to stop and the man's comforting bass voice to come through the line. She trusted Hadley, and she was grateful that he was letting her in on the investigation. She didn't want to piss him off and risk getting taken off of it, so she had to go about this delicately.

"Hey Ellie," he answered. "How are things going there?"

"Really well," she said. "I don't know what I expected when working with NCIS, but it wasn't this. We're working well together, and they're all crazy smart in their own ways."

"Good, because we're going to need smart." He sighed. "Evan is working on gathering that list their Agent Critten asked for. What can you tell me about it?"

"They've given me a fresh perspective on things. We're analyzing the conversations, and we think The Children of the Prophet are possibly _actually_ children or young adults. Their linguistics reflect that. Crow, however, is an adult. And if our leak is Crow, if we've had that prick in our ranks this whole time, I'm going to be… oh!" she groaned.

"You're sounding emotionally invested in this. Are you sure you should be working it?" Hadley said.

"Absolutely," Bishop said, bringing her voice back to a calmer demeanor, feeling her opportunity on the edge of being taken away. "There's no one better to be on this than me. I worked these communications, too. This guy took out my partner. For all I know, I could be next. Which is why I wanted to ask you for a favor."

"What do you need?" Hadley said, sounding like he was ready to offer her whatever she required.

"Let me take some of these agents with me to Mark's house. I know him, Terry. I know him better than Keo, better than Evan. I'll understand if things are out of place, or if something was moved to indicate a signal or a clue. There's evidence to suggest that he was leaving breadcrumbs. He was missing his glasses, his shoe, his wallet, his phone. The Marine Sergeant wasn't missing anything. If Mark was taken from his apartment, the breadcrumbs would start there. I'd be able to follow his trail. I know how his mind works."

"I hate to relinquish so much of this investigation to another agency. It's hard enough knowing that someone from our inner ranks may be the big baddie in this one, but to turn over this much-"

"It's all the more reason to do it. You know Evan hasn't processed a scene in ten years. He's had bigger projects, and hasn't gotten his hands dirty like this since before I came on board. If we log any evidence in house, we're basically granting him access to the entire investigation. We don't know who it is. We have no clue. We can't protect the data. We all literally live for cracking this kind of stuff. If we were to put a keystroke in a computer to even search, we don't know if Crow is watching. We'd be leading him right to us, or he'd at least know our every move."

"Then we need to get the FBI involved, not NCIS," Hadley said, sounding exasperated.

"Our networks lead right into theirs. We use some of the same software. And I don't know how to say this any other way, but I _trust_ the people I'm working with here. They're good people, and I know without a doubt that none of them are Crow. If he isn't NSA, then he's either FBI or CIA, and I'm not comfortable giving either of them access to the information we're uncovering."

Hadley sighed. "Fine," he said. "Go investigate Mark's apartment, but I want to know every detail, in MTAC afterwards. This doesn't go anywhere else. The Director will probably be there. You might want to bring theirs. We're scoping out our systems to try to narrow down our list of suspects. You should know, based on your access to the research, your name would be on the list."

"That wouldn't make any sense. There's nothing Mark had access to that I wouldn't have access to already. I wouldn't need to torture information out of him."

"I'm going to make sure everyone knows that. I've already said it ten times today, and I'll keep screaming it until every person scrubbing our systems knows it."

"Thank you," Bishop said with a sigh, her eyes closing.

"I trust you, Bishop. Don't let me down."

She nodded to herself. "I won't. I want this bastard more than all of you combined. I'll do whatever it takes to find him, and take him down."

********WDYG?********

Sierra pushed Amira on the swings. She felt her phone vibrate, and cringed. She knew it was Quinton and that she was going to have to cancel on him tonight. She didn't know when Abby and Tim would be free to take over watching Amira, if they would be able to at all. She pushed Amira one handed as she pulled the phone out and read the text. Sure enough, it was him confirming their plans. She texted him back the conundrum she was in. She took a picture of her exaggerated frownie face, and sent it with the text.

-That sucks, but I understand

\- - - Thanks for understanding. I'm at the park with my charge. I'll text you tonight when I can.

-Okay babe

She smiled to herself as she thought about how great this new guy was. He just seemed to get her, and he had been totally cool about her erratic work schedule. She hoped that he kept pace when she started back to school the next week. It was going to be rough being a nanny, going to school, and having a boyfriend. She was going to have to lean on him to carry the weight for a while until she learned to juggle everything.

Amira suddenly jumped off the swing with a squeal, and Sierra was brought back to the moment. She followed at a distance as she ran for the jungle gym and started to climb it.

"Sierra! Watch me!" Amira said, sliding down the big tunnel slide. Sierra made sure she was waiting at the bottom to bestow the appropriate accolades for taking on such a big slide by herself. Sierra jumped around and squealed, running to go back up the side of the gym, and take on the slide again. Sierra smiled, and enjoyed the excitement of the little girl.

She thought back to what Dr. Mallard had said to her. She was afraid she may already be too attached to Amira and her family to pull back. A part of her wanted to run in the other direction, but so much of her wanted to run deeper into the forest of this crazy family and everything that came with it.

It was a rule that you didn't too attached to your clients though. Not only was it a rule for the company she worked for, but it was a rule in therapy as well. You needed to keep a healthy detachment from charges and patients. You never knew when you'd lose one.

The problem was, she finally felt found.

********WDYG?********

The flight to Italy from France was only two and a half hours long, so Jethro and Tony were flying business class. It was still pretty nice, and Tony wasn't complaining or even mentioning the difference. They were both anxious to get to where they were going. The sun had already set where they were, but their bodies told them it was only about 1800. It had been a long day though, and they both were ready for some good food, a comfy hotel room, and some time away from other people.

Tony was starting to understand why Jethro chose cargo plane flights when they had the option. On a cargo plane no one was around to stare at them. No one was being obnoxious. Or snoring. Or smelling funky in such a small space. By time the wheels touched down in Naples, Tony had consumed much more alcohol than intended. Jethro had also had enough coffee to make even him jittery.

They were both infinitely glad when they got off of the plane and into the airport. Tony had taught Jethro some basic phrases in Italian to help them get by, but Tony knew that this was his time to shine. He loved the way Jethro's gaze turned a shade darker as he read off the signs aloud to him to guide them to where their baggage claim was. He smirked to himself, then headed for the corridor to the right. They followed a long trail of people who were also heading for the claims area, and then waited impatiently for their belongings.

Their suitcases finally tumbled over the conveyer belt, and around to them. They hauled them over the sides of the belt and extended the handles to roll them towards the exit. They chose a cab, the driver getting out to help load the luggage in the trunk, and then slid into the backseat. Tony told the man where they were headed, and he nodded with arched eyebrows at the name of the hotel.

Tony noticed, and to avoid conversation with the driver who may ask what their trip was about and start an awkward conversation, he turned to speak to Jethro in English. "Do you want to find dinner nearby tonight, or see if we can order room service?"

"I think room service would be nice tonight," Jethro said back quietly with a smile. "Would be nice to be away from people for the rest of the night after being crammed in a plane, or rushing through an airport all day."

"Yes, yes it would," Tony said with a smile. They sat quietly and watched the city's lights as they drove the fifteen minutes to their destination. "Even at night it's beautiful."

"Yeah, it is," Jethro said, but Tony realized that Jethro was looking at him instead of out of the window. He grinned to himself, and shook his head slightly. He looked forward at the driver to find he was looking back in the rearview.

He started a conversation with him about what he thought were the real best places to eat in Naples, not just where the tourists go. Jethro watched Tony intently as he spoke. Tony would turn occasionally and translate for Jethro the gist of the conversation. The cabbie was willing to offer up a couple of local places where there was a lot more than pasta on the menu, including a local bakery that he said made the best baba au rhum in Italy.

They arrived at the hotel, and said farewell to the cabbie with an extra bit on the tip for the advice. It didn't take long to check in, and soon they were escorted into their suite by a bellhop. Tony hadn't known the name of the hotel until the night before, and Jethro hadn't told him which suite that was booked. As soon as the bellhop left them alone, Tony had Jethro pinned to the wall with a kiss of happy gratitude for picking such an incredible room.

"It's amazing!" Tony said softly as he pulled back from the kiss. "Thank you."

Jethro reached forward and put a hand on the back of Tony's neck, pulling him in for a long, languid kiss. When they finally pulled apart, Tony was a little lightheaded. "You're welcome," Jethro whispered.

Tony could only nod for a moment while he regained his senses. He eventually cleared his throat, and shook off the daze. "So, room service?"

"Oh yeah. I'm hungry." The long look Jethro gave Tony let him know he was hungry for more than food, but if they didn't eat a real meal soon there would be no energy for fun afterwards. "Let's settle in, and we'll see what they got."

They explored their suite, complete with big screen TV and Jacuzzi tub. Tony's interest was more in the king size bed that he couldn't wait to be snuggled with Jethro in. He was feeling the honeymoon vibe, and was anxious to make this trip all about spending as much time as close to Jethro as possible, both physically and emotionally.

While Jethro used the restroom, Tony checked out the room service menu. It was fairly basic, but this hotel catered to international travelers, and had a little bit of everything available. He saw that there was a wine menu as well, and wondered if he needed any more to drink that night. He decided to hold off and save that for another night.

Jethro returned and came up behind Tony, sliding his arms around his waist from behind and kissing his neck. "What they got?" he asked softly in Tony's ear, holding him closer to him as he rested his chin on Tony's shoulder to look at the menu. Tony hummed in appreciation for the embrace, and leaned back into it.

"Did the reviews say anything about the dining?" Tony asked as he flipped the page.

"Just that it was good restaurant quality," Jethro said, squinting to see something on the page.

"See anything that looks appetizing?" Tony asked.

"I'm holding it," Jethro said, gently nipping playfully at Tony's ear, making him chuckle.

"On the menu," Tony said through his smile.

"Oh! That. Well…" Tony turned his head slightly towards Jethro and realized he wasn't wearing his glasses, so he probably didn't see anything at all on the pages.

"Where are your glasses?" he asked.

"In my pocket."

"Then why aren't you wearing them?"

"Because I'd have to let you go to get them out of my pocket, and I don't want to let you go. Just tell me a few things. You know what I like."

Tony felt like a teenager. He grinned even wider, and shook his head slightly as he read off a couple of things to Jethro. Jethro started rocking them back and forth, and Tony closed his eyes. He just wanted to stay right there forever. He felt Jethro kiss his jaw, and they both sighed happily.

"Should probably go ahead and order. The restaurant closes soon."

Tony nodded and confirmed Jethro's choice, then turned in his arms for a sweet kiss. "I love you," he said softly.

"I love you, too," Jethro said with a smile, his eyes shining.

"I'm so happy to be here with you. A year ago I wouldn't have even imagined something this perfect, and now I'm living in a fairytale."

"No scary dragons to slay." They both chuckled, thinking about bedtime with Amira.

Tony let go and placed their order. They started unpacking their things, settling into the room and preparing for the video call they'd have soon with Amira. Tony was testing the camera on his tablet when there was a knock at the door. Jethro opened it to let a different hotel associate wheel in a cart with lidded metal meal trays. He lifted the lids and looked at Jethro, who nodded to him that they looked sufficient, and the man put the food on the small dining table.

Tony joined them, then tipped the man, thanking him in Italian and commenting on how good the food looked. They were soon alone again, and sitting down to eat. They were quiet for a few minutes, enjoying the food and the peace.

"I can't wait to talk to Amira," Tony said with a sigh. "Not that I'm not enjoying a little peace and quiet, but…"

Jethro chuckled. "Me, too."

"I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that she has wrapped around her little finger."

"I'm pretty sure she has all of us wrapped," Jethro said before taking another bite of his food.

Tony nodded. A minute of silence went by as they ate some more, and then Tony shook his head. "I'm not going to think about work," he coached himself. "I'm not going to think about work."

"They'll be fine," Jethro said. Tony nodded and continued to eat.

Tony put his fork down finally and sighed. "That was good, but I'm looking forward to getting some real local food tomorrow."

"What do you want to do tomorrow?" Jethro asked.

"You," Tony said with a smirk. "As often as possible."

Jethro smirked around the bite of food he was putting in his mouth.

"Around delicious meals though. I want to find some crostata for breakfast. I looked into it after you finally gave up the name of the hotel last night. There's a bakery about three blocks from here that should be a great place to start. They have coffee and espresso as well, so we'll both be happy."

Jethro nodded, chewing the last of his food and setting down his fork.

"Then I thought we'd stay close, browse a bit and see what we find. Sundays here are about devotion and relaxation. So I thought we'd find a place for lunch, then come back and I could prove I'm devoted to you, and then we could relax." He smiled at Jethro who chuckled.

"I like the idea of resting and taking it easy for the first day," Jethro said, reaching across the small table to take Tony's hand and entwine their fingers. Tony looked at their fingers as he did. It was Jethro's left hand, so his wedding band shone brightly and felt warm and smooth between his fingers. He then looked up to see Jethro's blue eyes staring at him, a happy and content look on his face. Tony sighed happily himself.

"This is the break I didn't realize I so desperately needed. Just time alone with you."

"Nothing to worry about. No work or fatherhood to distract us. Just you, and me, and some peace and quiet."

Tony nodded. "I'm tempted to just spend the entire week curled up in bed with you."

Jethro shrugged. "Whatever you want."

Tony chuckled. "We didn't come to Italy to stay in bed the entire time, but it's tempting."

They sat quietly, their fingers rubbing soothingly against one another.

"Want to go ahead and call Amira a little early to get it out of the way, and then have the rest of the night to ourselves?" Tony asked, looking up at Jethro with a seductive stare.

Jethro cocked an eyebrow. "I'm good with that."

Tony got up, leaning forward to give Jethro a quick kiss. Jethro obliged, and then gathered their trays to sit outside of their room.

Soon they were sitting side by side at the table, the tablet propped up on it's case, and Skype ringing. Jethro pointed to the little window in the upper corner that showed the two of them. "This is what she's seeing?" he confirmed.

"Yes," Tony said softly. It took a minute, but soon the screen changed, and the video was moving in a way that nauseated Jethro.

"Hold on guys," Sierra said, heading towards her living room where Amira was sitting at the coffee table coloring. "Sierra! Guess what!?" Sierra had turned the tablet so that they could see Amira, and her expression when she realized that her daddies were on the tablet was priceless. She squealed and jumped up, reaching for the small screen.

"Hey Munchkin!" Tony cooed.

"Daddies!" she screamed.

"Hi baby girl," Jethro said with a chuckle. Amira hugged the tablet, and suddenly the screen went black. Tony had to restrain himself from hugging their tablet.

"We miss you so much!" Tony said.

"I miss yous guys, too!" Amira said, pulling back to see them on the camera. She stepped backwards and scooted up on the couch, never putting the tablet down. Sierra sat down next to her. Tony and Jethro were a little surprised to see that Amira was at Sierra's apartment instead of at Abby and Tim's place.

"You hanging out with Sierra tonight?" Tony asked.

"Yeah! We're coloring pictures, and she made me cookies!"

"I bet there were good cookies," Jethro said. "Sierra makes good cookies."

Sierra laughed. "The teams caught a big case first thing this morning, and I mean first thing. You may not have even been in the air yet," she said into the camera.

"Already?" Tony said with a wince, looking at Jethro.

"Yeah, already," Sierra said. "But Amira and I have hung out all day! We went to the park, and tell them what you did at the park."

Amira got shy, tucking into Sierra's side and smiled up at her, then at the tablet. "I went down the big slide all by myself!" she said.

"You did?!" Jethro said. "Atta girl! I knew you could do it!"

"Good job!" Tony said. "I bet Sierra was there to catch you."

"Yeah!" Amira said. "I did it, I did it four times!" she said, holding up four fingers.

"Four times!?" Tony said. "Wow! Look at that!" She and Jethro squeezed each other's hands under the table.

"Now I'm coloring pictures," she said. "And I got to watch Mickey!"

"Oh?" Jethro said. "What did Mickey say?"

"He- he said to count to ten with him and the Goofy, and then Minnie had ten flowers! They were pretty like mine!" she said, and the guys both thought about the giant tissue paper flowers Sierra had help her make for her room.

"Great!" Tony said.

They spent the next fifteen minutes talking to their daughter, enjoying seeing her smile at them and rattle on about all of the happy things she had done that day. It made both of them feel settled that she was safe and content with the people they trusted. Once they had finished their talk, Sierra told Amira that it was time to get ready for bed.

"Is it 8:00 already?" she whined.

"Almost," Sierra said with a nod.

"It's the middle of the night already here, Munchkin," Jethro said. "Daddy Tony and I need to go to bed."

"Really?!" Amira asked. "Is it really dark?" They'd tried to explain to her about the time difference before they left, but it was a hard concept for a five year old to grasp.

"Yup," Jethro said.

"Wanna see?" Tony asked.

"Yeah!" Amira said, squirming on the couch.

"Okay, hold on." Tony got up and took the tablet to the window, opening the curtains for her to see outside. He could hear her gasp, and he smiled.

"That's so awesome!" she said. Tony chuckled. She'd started saying "awesome" because both Sierra and the guys said it around her a lot. He turned the tablet back around so the camera faced him, and walked back over to sit next to Jethro.

"We're going to go to bed now, too," Jethro assured her.

"You are?" she asked.

"Yes," Tony said with a nod. "Definitely. We had a really long day."

"Ooooookay," she said with a sigh. "I miss you!"

"We miss you, too, Munchkin," Tony said.

"And we love you very much," Jethro added.

"I love yous guys, too," she said back.

"Bye-bye. We'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Bye-bye!" Amira said, then reached forward, and after a moment the screen went blank.

Tony turned off the tablet with a heavy sigh, then looked at Jethro. "Are we really going to bed?" Tony asked.

Jethro leered down Tony's body. He nodded slowly. "Hell yeah we are."

"Good," Tony said, getting to his feet and reaching out his hand to help Jethro to his feet. "Because I want to kick off my honeymoon."

"Be careful what you wish for," Jethro said with s smirk, and tugged Tony towards the bed.


	5. Chapter 5

_Thanks for being patient with me folks! Getting these out as quickly as the muse will let me. Already a few pages into the next one, but will probably get caught up in some things this week so it will probably be a couple weeks out. However, yay for honeymoon! And I'm having a lot of fun planning the villain(s?) of this tale. I hope you enjoy!_

Chapter 5

"I cannot find a single thing to connect our Marine and Piper," Greg said, sitting back and tossing his pen on the desk in frustration. "They have absolutely nothing in common."

"Other than being found dead on a river bank last night," Ned said with a scoff, equally as annoyed as Greg. They'd been looking for a connection for hours. They had put aside their attempts at deciphering Crow to see if they could be led to him by their victims instead of the data. They were getting nowhere.

"Davis was deployed in Iraq, Piper did analysis of communications from Iraq, but that's needle in a haystack kinda territory there. What communications would have something to do with what Davis was working on?" Greg asked, watching Ned's face as it twisted in thought.

"He was on a project at one point for building a clinic in Hawija. Someone planted some IEDs around the work site and he was injured, but by flying debris. Was able to get back to it after only a few days. The rest of his history there will need to be discussed with his CO when he's available tonight."

"Were you able to track down anyone who was deployed with him?" Greg asked. Ned nodded.

"Two guys that I've left voicemails for, neither in the DC area. We're playing the waiting game. What were you able to scrounge up about Piper?"

"Just that he has been specializing in this stuff for thirteen years, so if anyone was going to know what to look for, it was him. He was very detail oriented, obsessed with punctuation, and has written literally hundreds of briefings about potential threats. How many of those were useful and applied, we'll probably never know."

"Well, we know about the clinic. Let's see if we can find anything in here that mentions Hawija or a clinic specifically. We'll start there." Ned started scanning a report, and Greg sighed as he did the same.

After a couple reports each, Greg looked up and over at Ned. "When do you talk to their CO?"

"Not soon enough." He looked up at Greg and tossed another report on the desk. "Ten o'clock. I'm so tired. You wanna go make a food and coffee run? I'll buy if you fly."

"Yes, please!" Greg said, jumping up and stretching.

"Get me the largest, most caffeinated iced coffee possible with vanilla flavoring," Ned said, handing some money to him. "And no onions or peppers. Probably not a good idea with the coffee."

"Smart thinking," Greg said, raising an eyebrow and then turning to get his weapon and badge.

A couple of minutes later and Ned was all alone in the bullpen. McGee had taken Elly and Bishop to Piper's house. Ziva and Sommers weren't back yet, and he not so secretly suspected that Ziva had killed the prick and was late getting back because she was having a hard time hiding the body. The Director was coming in to join him in MTAC later, but for now the bullpen and everything around him was empty and quiet.

He scanned the area, then picked up his cell.

 _\- -Pssst! I need a favor._

He waited for a long couple of minutes, and continued scanning reports for keywords he had in mind about the clinic and Hawija. He was so lost in his scanning now that it was peaceful that he was startled when the phone chimed with a text back.

 _\- Does your fiancé know that you're talking to me?_

Ned rolled his eyes.

 _\- - No one does, but that's for sensitivity issues. This case is on another level. Though I wouldn't hesitate to tell Elly if he asked. I have nothing to hide._

 _\- Okay… What's the favor?_

 _\- - What do you know about a group out of New York called 'atfal Alnabii?_

 _\- Hmmm. They're small potatoes. Really disorganized. They've killed a few people in the name of their cause, or at least they claim that it was them. They brand their victims or something. Why?_

 _\- - They killed a Marine and NSA agent last night._

 _\- Well, that sucks._

 _\- - Yeah. I can't find anything to connect the two men killed, but they were found together, tortured and shot point blank._

 _\- Any details you can share?_

 _\- - I shouldn't even be sharing that, but the Marine just got home from Iraq and the analyst covered Middle Eastern communications._

 _-That's like saying the grass and weeds are both in the ground._

 _\- - Exactly. That's why I was reaching out. If you hear anything, please give me a call or text. Was worth a try._

 _\- Do we have to have your boss on the phone with us when I call you?_

Ned sighed. He had thought he'd picked up on hostility earlier in their conversation, but wasn't sure. Apparently Andy was still bitter about being "cockblocked", as Bishop has put it.

 _\- -Depends._

 _-On what?_

 _\- - On whether or not you're going to behave._

 _-Oh, I always behave. That's what you liked about me most._

Ned threw his head back and groaned. He rubbed the back of his neck, and he knew he was turning bright red. He was so glad that he was alone. The memories that flooded his mind were having a rather uplifting effect on him. Though it's not what he wanted now, it was _very nice_ while he had it.

 _\- - I've got someone else behaving for me now, and he plans to do so for the rest of his life._

There was a long moment of silence, and then Ned continued.

 _\- - He and I have been through some shit together. Big shit. He means everything to me. I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize that._

There were a long few minutes of silence, and Ned figured he had finally pushed Andy away for good with that one. The point of contention between them in the past had never been whether or not they were good together. They were fantastic together. Sexually, personalities, and professionally they had everything they wanted in each other. The difference was that in college Ned wanted it to be permanent, and Andy didn't. Andy wanted to be a free agent, in every sense of the word. Ned wasn't willing to share him.

Their last summer together was strictly sexual, and though Ned enjoyed it, he was never really quite _okay_ with it. Andy had changed. He'd gotten casual, kind of cocky, and stuck up around friends, but when they were alone he was the Andy that Ned had loved. He'd wanted more of that Andy, and believed that if he was in Andy's life permanently that he'd be the Andy he wanted him to be. So, he asked Andy to make things permanent and official. Andy said no, and they went their separate ways. It was just one more thing that had hurt Ned that summer.

When Andy caught up with him a couple of years later on social media, he'd changed his tune. He'd wanted Ned to come join him at the CIA, and be a real couple. He wanted them to go on joint assignments together and take on the world. Ned turned him down, gently. It wasn't that it didn't sound amazing, because it did. But he didn't trust that it would last. He knew that Andy couldn't do the forever thing, not to mention that if they were on assignments undercover they wouldn't be able to pose as a couple very often and would have a hard time with operations. But he agreed to be friends with him, at least professionally.

He felt a little bad about throwing permanence back in Andy's face, but he was crossing a line with the behaving comment, and he wanted to push him away quickly and efficiently. He sighed as he realized that he probably just burnt the bridge with one of his best contacts.

He knew he was going to have to tell Elly about the conversation, or he'd feel even guiltier. He was willing to feel guilty about hurting Andy, but he wasn't willing to feel guilty about anything to do with Elly, especially not hiding a conversation like this from him.

He was four more reports in when his phone chimed again. He was surprised to see that it was a long rant coming back at him from Andy.

-That's not fair, Ned. That's not fair at all. I offered you forever, and you said no. First you wanted it, then you didn't take it when I offered it up to you on a fucking silver platter! I tried to be with other people after college, and it was impossible because I always compared them to you, and they fell entirely too short. I'd had the real thing, and I'd lost it. I tried to make up for it, tried to offer everything I was, my entire world to you, and you wouldn't take it. You turned your nose up at it. And I've stayed as connected as possible to you this entire time, hoping, praying that one day you'd change your mind and be willing to give us another shot, a shot that I promised myself I wouldn't screw up if it was given. I wanted to tell you that when I saw you, and then your boss was there. It was going to be my last grand attempt. I was going to ask you to run away with me. To leave it all behind. Start over somewhere, a new life, a peaceful life where there's not so much death and destruction. I knew if anyone would understand that this is too much for me, it would be you, and you wouldn't judge me. I can't do it anymore, Ned! I can't keep watching people die around me. I can't keep killing people. I can't deal with this. I crave your gentle heart, and your beautiful mind, and your tender strength, and a life with you that I'll never have. I don't need you throwing it back in my face.

Ned sat there slack-jawed. He blinked a couple of times, but other than that and his erratically beating heart, he didn't move at all for a long few minutes. Finally, he closed his mouth and shook his head slowly.

"What the fuck?" he whispered.

*********WDYG?*********

Ziva and Sommers arrived at the marina and tracked down Davis' boat. It wasn't very big, but it was nice. They searched it and realized that he'd been on the boat pretty recently. There was trash in the can that was smelling up the small cabin. When Ziva looked closer, there were food remnants that she figured were about a week old.

Sommers was complaining about the stench and moving through the tiny cabin lifting up things to see if anything was hidden beneath. When Ziva pointed out what was causing the stench, she could see the lightbulb go off above his head that said that he was understanding something. He looked closer at the trash as well, wrinkling his nose.

"That's rancid," he said as he tried not to gag.

"Putrid," Ziva said, snapping on a glove to confiscate the remains as evidence. "I think it was egg salad."

" _Was_ is the operative word here," Sommers said, grimacing as she pulled it from the black bag in the can and slipped it into a large evidence Ziploc. She sealed it and pulled a marker out of her pocket to label it. "Bunk looks like it was slept in recently. I bet if we searched the parking lot we'd find his car."

"Probably," Ziva said with a nod. "It looks like this could be where he was taken from. Somewhere here on the marina, or even directly off the boat. Why don't you go search for his car outside. I'll take a few prints and see you out there."

Sommers nodded and headed for the lot, glad to be free of the smell, and Ziva was glad to be free of Sommers. She could not understand how he was an agent. He didn't seem to have any ability to follow a chain of evidence. Something smells rotten in the boat. Well, let's see what the rotten smell is because it most likely was important evidence. He simply stopped at the smell. It didn't seem to trigger the next steps, the follow through. She was surprised that he thought about the car being nearby, though she'd already had the thought as soon as she saw the remains of the sandwich, and even considered it a possibility as they drove to the marina.

She took a few prints, and then made her way out of the boat. She found Sommers in the parking lot looking at a Mustang, walking cautiously around it. She joined him, looked at her notebook to see their victim's plate ID, then matched it with the car in front of them.

"Plate matches. We found it. I don't see anything unusual about it though."

"Yeah, it's pristine. Not a scratch on it. Interior is spectacular," he said, looking at her. "It's like everything else with this guy. It's just too good to be true."

"You think it's been detailed to hide evidence?" she asked.

"I don't know," he said with a shrug. "I just think that I'd like to find something to help wrap this up so we can have our weekend back."

Ziva sighed. "Let's have it towed back to the Navy Yard. We shall let Abby give it a look for anything we may not be able to see."

Sommers reached a gloved hand to open the door, but found it locked. "Figures," he said quietly.

Ziva pulled out her phone and handed the printing kit to Sommers. "See if you can get any prints off the door handles before we tow it, just in case. I will call for the tow truck." Sommers surprisingly didn't argue and took the kit. She stood far off and away from the car to make the call, watching Sommers work with precise care as he printed it. She wondered to herself whether or not it was the fact that he was printing, or the fact that it was such a nice car that had earned such gentle detail. She called Abby to warn her that the car was coming.

"You're stuck out there with the jerk?!" Abby exclaimed. "You have my sympathies."

"Yes," Ziva said with a sigh. "It's not my first choice in assignments, but I haven't killed him yet. I am trying really hard to focus on the positives. It is very, very hard. If he would simply shut up it wouldn't be so bad."

"After what he said in the meeting yesterday I wouldn't be surprised if he was mysteriously found floating in a cove somewhere."

"I have considered it, but knowing that Critten is going to put him in his place on Monday is getting me through. Every time he says something else that makes me want to strangle him, I think of him getting a swift blow to the head and a kick to the stomach. It makes me feel better."

Abby laughed, which made Ziva smile. "I plan on being there to watch it go down. He has no idea what's about to happen to him."

"No, he doesn't. Critten and I train together sometimes because he's studied some of the same martial arts that I have, and he doesn't make it easy on me to keep up. We have taught each other some things that I hope he decides to practice on Sommers. It will not happen at all though if we cannot get this case wrapped up."

"Does the marina have security footage we can tap into?" Abby asked, causing Ziva to turn her head up and look around.

"I believe they do," she said as she checked the light poles on the dock for cameras and seeing something that could be one.

"Is there an office there? Maybe someone could give you access to the footage. I can work on it while some of these tests are running."

"That would be fantastic. Thank you, Abby. I'll go check and call you back."

They disconnected and Ziva went to tell Sommers what she was going to do, instructing him to wait with the car for the tow truck. He simply nodded and continued printing around the edge of the door with meticulous detail. She shrugged mentally and headed for the boathouse, unable to figure out the man, and not sure she wanted to.

********WDYG?********

Elly drove Tim and Bishop to Piper's apartment. They talked about Piper the entire way. Bishop was a fountain of knowledge about Piper's quirks and personality traits that would help them in their search of the apartment. Apparently, the older man was disorganized in his personal life, and anal retentively organized in his professional life. Bishop admitted to being the opposite- a neat freak at home, and a scattered thinker, as she put it, at work. She said that she and Piper would compliment each other that way, but other times drive each other nuts.

Elly smiled as he thought of Ned's OCD and his own messiness.

"Sometimes, when we were up against something that was confusing us, and we were pulling an all-nighter, I'd sit on the floor with all of my files out around me like I was in your office, and I wouldn't be able to see him from behind his desk, and suddenly something would just come flying over the edge of the desk at me, and I'd reach up and catch it out of thin air like a trained circus act. And I'd toss a folder up on his desk, and he'd go, "Damn it Ellie!" because I would scatter his papers around. But then it would be just what he was looking for, and he's sigh in frustration because he knew I was right, and that he needed that exact folder at that exact moment."

"Sounds like you two were a professional yin and yang," Elly said with a smile in the rearview. She smiled back and nodded.

"He was a trusted mentor and friend. His wife left him because he spent so much time buried in work that he couldn't talk to her about, even though he wanted to more than anything. She didn't understand why he couldn't. He knew though that she would panic if she heard some of the things we were writing up. He always envied that about Jake and I. He told me to cherish that, that it was important. He loved his kids, but they were grown with families of their own now, and he didn't see them much. He said that he spent too much time on work instead of on his family, and that he'd earned his position in their lives." Bishop sighed, her voice gone sad as she stared out the window. "I wonder if they even care that he's gone."

Tim turned to look over his shoulder at her. "I'm sure they do. My dad was the same way. Worse even. We barely speak, but I know that if he passed, or when he passes, I'm going to hurt. He's my father. There's no getting around that."

Bishop gave him a sad smile. Elly focused on the road in front of him. He wasn't sure he was in a place right now to agree with Tim's sentiment, but he knew that it was what Bishop needed to hear, so he kept quiet.

They arrived at Piper's apartment and cautiously entered, watching for anything and everything that could be wrong or out of place. When they saw the state of things they realized what Bishop was saying. The space was definitely lived in. There was stuff everywhere, and nothing seemed to have a place. Bishop stood in the middle of the living room and looked around with a critical eye.

Elly looked at Tim with a raised eyebrow, and he nodded at him. Elly took the fingerprinting case and started looking around at things that should be dusted. He began with the doorknobs, trying to find a good print and not having much luck. He dusted the door's frame to see if anything was worthwhile there, and got a couple of solid prints, but when he overlaid them on the paper sheet and scanned them, they matched Piper's. Having his fingerprints available made the process somewhat quicker.

"It doesn't look like he was taken from here," Bishop said, coming from the bedroom. "He has this neon green suitcase on wheels that he takes on vacation with him. I know because I've dropped him off at the airport before on another trip. He loves it. Swears he's never seen another one like it, and that he has no trouble finding it in the airport."

"He really liked neon green," Tim said quietly to Elly, who scrunched up his face, then schooled himself for Bishop's sake.

"It was his favorite color," Bishop said with a sigh. "He liked how it was the complete opposite of what everyone thought of him as. He was such a quiet guy until you got to know him, with a surprisingly sharp wit that would catch you off guard, and so detailed oriented. Most of the time it was khakis and a button down or polo, and then there were random days where he's wear a floral print shirt and neon green gym shoes. He liked to keep people on their toes in his own way." She looked up at Tim and squinted her eyes in thought.

"He believed that no one was as they seemed, that everyone was portraying a mask that they wanted the world to see them as, but that inside everyone was a different person. His beach trips, randomly flamboyant clothing, and occasional music choices were his different person. His alternate persona."

Elly thought about how he and Ned were both very good at that. They both had professional personas that were so at odds with their personal personas. As he thought about it though, their team was such a family that they let that personal persona out much more than they probably should at work. It reminded him that he was Elijah right now, not Elly, and he felt both proud and restrained at the same time. He wasn't making jokes or comments about the condition of the apartment because he didn't want to come off as unprofessional as the liaison he was supposed to be at the moment. He was proud of being trusted with that role, though he wasn't sure he was doing a very good job of is. He could only try his best though, so he kept at it.

"You don't think…" McGee started, trying not to sound insensitive. "You don't think Piper was actually Crow, and that it got out of hand and The Children rebelled, do you?"

Elly froze as he looked back and forth between Bishop and McGee. That was a rather bold accusation, even if put in question form. He was curious to see how Bishop was going to react.

Bishop shook her head slightly. "That doesn't feel right," she said, chewing on her lip for a moment. "But I don't know if I'm impartial enough to judge right now. It just doesn't make any sense though."

"I don't know, Ellie," Elly said gently. "He had a personal theory on people having two faces, he researched this material, and now he's gone. I don't think we can immediately rule out the idea."

Bishop nodded, looking Elly in the eye. "I know, I just… so much of what he's said to me in the past makes me think otherwise. He was just as aggravated with The Children as any other group we researched and wrote up. He wasn't particularly impressed or impassioned against them. There was no flag there. They were just another threat, and he treated them like one. He worked just as hard on our reports about them as any others. It just doesn't feel like that's it in my gut."

"Well, if there's one thing we have learned working with the Gibbs', it's to trust your gut. When we get back to the office, we'll work on finding any evidence that points towards him being Crow, and you play devil's advocate and find evidence against it."

She nodded at Tim. "That's fair."

The guys nodded, too. They searched through the apartment for anything else that looked out of place. They confiscated his desktop, but a quick look through it told Tim that he didn't do anything work related on it. There were a bunch of arcade games, and he used Internet Explorer, so Tim knew that he wasn't secretly tech savvy.

Elly found a number of thumb drives and dropped them into evidence bags. Bishop had taken the camera and had started taking pictures of everything. Elly could tell she didn't have much crime scene experience, but she made up for it in thoroughness. He knew that by time they were finished she'd have the entire apartment photographed for cataloging.

They left the apartment and dropped off what they had in the car, then began to canvass the area for anyone who would have seen anything the day they believed Piper went missing. There wasn't anyone who had been out at the time of morning they suspected Piper left his apartment for the airport. It was looking like a dead end, and they were about to get in their car when Bishop saw something and closed her door instead of getting in.

Elly looked from McGee to Bishop, and they followed her as she headed across the street. They tried to ask her what was going on, and she only responded with a shake of her head. She jogged to the corner, the guys following and then she stopped.

"Do you see the guy with the Hawaiian shirt?" she asked, looking almost a block down at a guy carrying a large backpack with a jacket hanging from it, and wearing a hideously patterned shirt of palm trees.

"Yeah," Tim said cautiously.

"I'm pretty sure I've seen that on Piper before. I think it was in a photo he showed me from his last trip."

Elly shrugged, then took off at a run for the guy, Bishop and Tim following close behind at a somewhat slower pace. When Elly caught up with him, he smiled at the guy, but it didn't do much to disarm him from the surprise of Elly jumping in front of him.

"Hey! Quick question for you," he said. "Where did you get your shirt?"

The guy looked around like he was going to bolt, and Elly rested a hand on his shoulder where he could easily grab his backpack strap if he needed to. "Whoa! Calm down. I'm not mad, just wondering."

Bishop and Tim caught up with him, and slowed to a stop, surrounding him.

"I, um, found it?" he said, looking between the three of them.

"Cool. Where?" Elly said.

"What's this about?" the guy asked. "I don't want any trouble."

"A friend of mine used to own a shirt just like that," Bishop said. "He was killed, and we think that shirt may have been left behind in his belongings from the place he was taken."

Elly raised an eyebrow at her and McGee, wondering if she should've been so honest, but the guy wasn't running. Instead he put his hands in his hair and backed up to sit on the steps of the nearest building.

"Oh, no. I knew it was too good to be true!" he said. "I'm in between places right now, and I don't have much, and I saw this suitcase. Ya know those ones with the wheels? I couldn't carry the whole thing, but I watched it for like half an hour, and no one was coming back for it, so I figured it was a gift from God or something, and I dragged it into the alley, and the clothes in it were just my size, ya know? So, I tucked as many of them into my bag as possible."

"Where was the bag when you found it?" Tim asked.

"I don't want no trouble man! I'll take you right to the spot. It's just around that corner down there."

"Okay, man. Why don't you show us?" Elly asked, reaching out a hand to help him up. The guy looked at Elly's hand, and then took it, hoisting himself up. He led them down the road and about two cars up from where they were parked. There was a small alleyway between the buildings, and the man explained about how that was where he unloaded the bag and showed them where it had been propped against a telephone pole right near it.

"What else was in the bag?" Ellie asked.

The guy looked distraught again, running his hands through his greasy hair. "I just, I just wanted some food and smokes, ya know? So, there was a pretty nice camera, and I took it down to Louie's."

Bishop sighed, then looked at the guys. Elly nodded, and then decided to venture into the alley to see if there was anything left of the belongings. He found the suitcase sitting next to a fire escape, and sure enough, it was that obnoxious neon green. He looked around for anything else that may have belonged to him, but there was nothing but some underwear left behind in the suitcase. He realized that he didn't have an evidence bag big enough for the suitcase, but carried it towards the small group anyway. As he moved into the sunlight he saw a small pocket along the inside seam of the ba, and slipped his hands down in it. He found Piper's NSA badge. He pulled it out and held it up to Bishop and McGee.

"Yeah, it was his. Looks like he was taken from right here on his stoop. They could've been hiding in the alley for him, jumped him, shoved him into a car or something, and gotten away in minutes."

Bishop reached out for the badge, and Elly gave it to her. She ran her fingers over it, and looked up at McGee, then back to Elly, then to the badge. "We don't take our badges with us on vacation. We're not like you agents. We really don't want anyone to know what we do when we travel. It's dangerous. And since we're not trained agents like you, we don't have any reason to get involved in things if something were to happen. We don't carry our badges with us outside of work. Why would he have his badge with him?"

"Maybe his double persona was working on a project you weren't privy to," McGee said.

"Hadley would've told me by now," she said, shaking her head. "He trusts me. He would've told me even if he wasn't supposed to."

"Maybe Hadley didn't know," Elly said with a shake of his head. "Maybe it was higher than Hadley, or something that he was doing off the books."

"He takes these trips multiple times a year, right?" Tim asked.

Bishop nodded.

"Well, maybe he was chasing a ghost," he said.

"I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone right now," Bishop said. "If he was, that may be what got him killed."

Their witness that wasn't a witness stood off to the side, trying not to listen in on the conversation. He interrupted them at this point though and asked if he could go.

"Let me get some information from you," Tim said, pulling the guy aside. While he got his limited contact information and took a picture of him, Elly pulled Bishop towards the car by the elbow.

"Are you okay?" he asked, chewing his bottom lip.

"Yeah, this just all seems to be getting more and more bizarre by the moment though. Let me lay this out real quick," She dropped her voice and leaned against the car. "My partner, who I trust with my life, is dead at the hands of The Children of the Prophet, along with a Marine he's supposedly never met. He was kidnapped before taking a trip to what was supposed to be a tropical beach resort, but may have been a cover for a secret op or something else work related that no one knows about, or at least have kept _me_ in the dark about. And then there's the ultra-slim possibility that said partner is actually the leader of a terrorist group. Sound about right?"

"Sounds right to me. What we need to do next is get that camera back from the pawn shop before they sell it, if they haven't already."

"I don't get it. I know he's actually going to these islands. He comes back with pictures of him at the beach, of the ocean, of the palm trees… I know he's going. What could he possibly be doing there?"

"Maybe meeting with an informant?" Elly asked. "Or maybe he's got a secret lover, and the badge was just with him because he's paranoid. That's what we have to find out."

"Okay," Tim said, joining them. "Mr. Lucas is taken care of. Now the pawn shop."

Twenty minutes later they had easily confiscated the camera. Louie said that he was concerned about where it had come from, so he had kept it back for a week to wait to see if anyone reported it stolen. He was happy to get rid of it after finding out it belonged to a dead guy. He was incredibly superstitious.

They stood outside the shop, looking over Bishop's shoulders as she scrolled through the pictures on the memory card. There weren't many, just some photos of the beach and the resort he'd stayed in during his last trip.

"Maybe I'm looking too much into this, but maybe these pictures are supposed to mean something. Like coordinates, or clues, or a code." She flicked through the photos again and again. There were about a dozen of them. "I mean, why would he only keep these? I know he takes hundreds of pictures. I have to be tortured with them when he gets home."

"Can I see it a second?" Tim asked. She handed it to him and watched his face as he scrolled through the settings. He looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "The photos are geotagged. There's coordinates attached to the photos."

"Seriously?" she asked, looking over his arm at the camera.

"Sweet!" Elly said with a grin. "We've got ourselves a puzzle!"

Tim showed Bishop how to access the geotag information, and she took the camera and started heading towards the car.

"I guess we're going," Elly said with a shrug and they followed her.

Once they got in the car and buckled in, Bishop pulled out her phone to call Hadley.

"Hey, Ellie. Tell me you got something."

"We have something, but I'm not sure what."

"Okay?"

"His suitcase had been left outside of the apartment the morning we suspected he'd gone missing. A homeless man found it, took the clothes, and pawned the camera. We have the camera back, and we have a theory, but I need to know something."

"What's that?" Hadley asked, a slight hesitance to his voice that Bishop was sure not many would catch unless they knew Hadley like she knew Hadley.

"Do you know if Mark was working on any side assignments?"

Another slight hesitation, and then Hadley answered. "I don't think so. I can check for you though. Why? What did you find?"

"Nothing conclusive. Circumstantial at best. I just have this feeling."

"Well, don't read too much into something that isn't there, but I'll be glad to check for you. What were you able to find in the apartment?"

"Nada. Everything was untouched. The only prints we pulled match Mark, and you know he's never really been a techy person."

"Yeah," Hadley said, sounding somewhat distracted. "Well I'll look into any other projects he may be working on, but you knew him better than I do these days. I don't really think he had any time for a side project."

Bishop was getting a new feeling in her guy, like she wasn't being told everything, and like she wouldn't be. It had her at a loss. She'd always trusted Hadley, and he'd told her things in the past that he had no business telling her when he needed a fresh set of outside eyes, so she thought he trusted her too. She wasn't feeling that at the moment. She caught Tim's eyes looking over her shoulder, and Elly's looking back at her in the mirror. She chewed her bottom lip a moment, and then gave Hadley as genuine at thank you as she could muster before disconnecting.

"Everything okay?" Tim asked.

"I don't know," Bishop said, tapping her phone on her palm. "Something feels… off. Like I'm not being told everything, or that Hadley needs to check with someone before he can tell me what he knows. Either someone was around him that prevented him from being completely honest with me, or he knows something he shouldn't."

"Okay," Elly said, looking back at her in his rearview, the car still sitting in park. "Are you saying he's acting suspicious enough that he may need to be added to the "People Who May Be Crow" list, or are you saying you halfway expect a call from him later giving you the real scoop?"

"Uh…" she thought for a moment, again biting her lip. "I'm going to go with number two, but let's treat number one the same way that we're treating the idea that Piper is Crow."

Elly nodded, his eyebrows raising. He turned the key over in the ignition and pulled off. He was impressed that she was able to be so objective, putting her feelings about these people aside enough to label them with at least some suspicion. He couldn't imagine thinking for a moment that anyone on his team was a possible secret terrorist, or double agent, or any kind of criminal. The loyalty that he felt to them was much too strong, and he would go to the ends of the Earth to prove their innocence. He knew things were different at the NSA, not usually being in the field like they were, but he'd expected a little more loyalty from Bishop than she was giving her team. It made everything all the more suspicious.

********WDYG?********

Tony loved the look in Jethro's eyes as he was pulled towards the bed in their suite. It was everything he imagined for his honeymoon. There was love, there was passion, there was that sultry dark sexuality that Jethro could ooze like no one he'd ever met. The spark was still alive, despite everything they'd been through so far, and he relished in it.

When Jethro pushed him back on the bed, then laid down next to him, Tony thought of their first night together. Jethro bent slowly to kiss him, looking deep into his eyes first, and that kiss felt just like the first one. It was slow, but the passion and depth to it was boundless. It was meaningful. This wasn't just the beginning of a vacation where they'd fuck like rabbits. It was their honeymoon- the time away given to express their love to one another after their wedding. Sure, it was delayed, but it only made the tender fire that coursed between them all the sweeter.

It wasn't until that kiss that Tony realized how much they needed this reconnection. They'd been so caught up in Amira, and work, and getting used to having their teams and Sierra around, that they'd started to become casual to one another. Sex was great, amazing even, but this was so much more. The way that Jethro's hand slid up Tony's stomach and then chest, even over his shirt, caused intense heat to run through him. This was the love of his life. This was the infallible Leroy Jethro Gibbs, bastard extraordinaire, best boss he'd ever had and one of the best agents NCIS had ever seen, and now he was his _husband_.

"How are you feeling, Mr. Gibbs?" Jethro said quietly with a smile, looking down into Tony's eyes. Tony's hand reached up to wrap around the back of Jethro's neck, squeezing softly and fingering the short silver hairs there.

"Like the world is mine," Tony whispered, then leaned up and took Jethro's lips in his again.

There was no rushing. The world stopped for them. This was their time, and no one could take it from them. Tony got lost in a sea of sensation.

Jethro felt the world expanding out in front of him as he landed next to Tony on the bed. Tony was his world, and he was overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude, pride, and bright love. This was his favorite place, next to the man who trusted him enough to be with him forever. He honed in on Tony's body, his entire being, and he felt like his entire world was laid out in front of him to explore and revel in. He looked into his eyes and saw forever, and then he kissed him.

The kiss sent light through his entire body, warming him from the inside out. That's what Tony felt like to him- light. Bright, enticing, like a smile for his soul, and warmth for his heart. He wanted to marry him all over again right then and there. He wanted to show him, tell him, make him understand just how much he meant to him, and how much he was dedicated to him.

He pulled back, content with doing so because he knew that he had the rest of his life to kiss Tony; the rest of his life to show Tony exactly how he felt. He smiled at the look in Tony's eyes, the reflection of his own feelings shining back at him. "How are you feeling, Mr. Gibbs?" he asked quietly, a smile on his lips that he could feel in his ears.

"Like the world is mine."

When Tony's lips came up to touch him, he could feel those words echo down his very spine. Tony was his, and he was Tony's. There was nothing in the world more perfect, more right.

Their tongues slid over one another. Their lips suckled each other's lips. Their hands made their way over one another's bodies, but never, not once did the individual actions distract them from the sensation that they were enmeshed in one another, vibrating at the same frequency, resonating at a level neither had ever found with anyone else. They moved like one person against each other, and Jethro was lost.

Tony's touches, his kisses, the feeling of his body against his as their clothes slowly but surely found their way to the floor… it all him drugged. He was higher than high. He felt more vulnerable than ever before, and yet at the same time he felt stronger than he had in his entire life. Nothing would keep him from showing Tony just what he meant to him that night, not even his own past and well-hidden insecurities.

There weren't any more words. Tony's hands traced the muscles of Jethro's back, shoulders, and arms as he grasped for his sanity. Jethro's mouth tried to find air as he devoured Tony's neck, his own hands coasting down Tony's back to his ass. They both pulled each other towards them with desperation, unable to get close enough, but knowing they were closer than humanly possible. Things were happening to them they couldn't explain. It was almost as if they could feel each other's thoughts, desires, emotions as they ground slowly against one another.

Time meant nothing. At some point, Jethro reached for the lube Tony had sat on the night stand for them while unpacking. Between the two of them, they lubed Tony's cock for stroking, and Jethro's cock to ease its way into Tony.

Once he breached Tony's entrance, they moaned into each other's mouths mid-kiss. Jethro pushed forward a little more, knowing that this wasn't Tony's preferred angle, but the one that would allow them to keep kissing, which they both knew without saying a thing was the priority right now. Tony gasped into Jethro's mouth, and Jethro inhaled his breath like it was his very soul. Jethro shivered, trying to hold himself in place for a moment to allow Tony to adjust, but at the same time was lost in the warmth surrounding him. He was diving into the ocean of his world, his Tony, and he was loving the feeling around him and within him.

Tony ached with a sweetness that brought him to life. Jethro was his, and the way he felt deep inside of him right now was the most perfect completeness he could ever ask for. It was the missing piece to his puzzle. This was his everything.

Tony's hands kept grasping at Jethro's back as his legs wrapped around his hips. Jethro's arms were along Tony's, holding him up on the bed, but his hands were around Tony's shoulders, pulling him closer to him with each slow thrust. Tony let soft moans and gasps escape now and then with the thrusting, but other than that there were no words spoken, the only other sound their bed and bodies.

The pace quickened, and Tony reached his right hand down to stroke himself between them, Jethro arching his back to allow Tony the room to do so. The kiss resumed and the passion filled the air around them as they fell into rhythm with each other until they climaxed in unison.

Jethro collapsed on top of Tony, who lowered his legs to wrap around Jethro's calves instead of his hips, their arms around each other as they savored their collective orgasm. Jethro nuzzled into Tony's neck, and Tony nuzzled the top of Jethro's head with his chin. Nothing was said as they fell asleep closer than they ever thought they could be.

********WDYG?********

Vance walked into the bullpen, his jacket over his arm and briefcase in hand. Ned and Greg both looked up from their reports, empty food wrappers next to them, and greeted him. He didn't look happy.

"This is not what I wanted to be doing with my Saturday night, gentlemen."

"Not what we want to be doing either, sir," Ned said calmly.

"Staff Sergeant Melbourne coming online soon?"

"About forty-five minutes," he answered with a nod.

"Good. Where's the rest of the team?"

Ned felt his MTAC persona taking over naturally again. "Ziva and Sommers are backtracking the Marine's last known whereabouts in Norfolk. They believe he was taken from a marina there where he stores his boat. McGee, Elly and the NSA analyst, Bishop, are on their way back from deceased analyst Mark Piper's apartment. They have some theories that McGee and Elly want to discuss with you."

"Am I going to like these theories?"

"Not one bit, sir," Ned answered with a shake of his head.

Vance sighed. "Great. Send them up when they get here."

"Will do," Ned said, watching the older man turn to leave. He looked over at Greg who looked back worried, and then looked back down at his paperwork.

He tried to concentrate on the report in front of him, but he couldn't stop thinking about Andy's text. He hadn't replied. It hurt. He felt guilty, and ashamed, and angry. How dare Andy try to interfere in his life now, after all these years? How dare he try to suddenly change everything he'd worked so hard for? And what did he mean that he offered himself up on a silver platter? Ned had his own life. He didn't need Andy's.

And then there was what Andy said about needing to get out. That he wanted to take Ned and run. That he didn't want to kill anymore. That he'd be the only one who would understand. It was a knife to the gut.

He was confused, but more than anything, he just wanted to show Elly the messages. He wanted to confess the conversation to him, and he wasn't quite sure why. He knew that he should wait until after the meeting in MTAC, once Elly had the opportunity to get some space to handle it. He figured he'd be angry. Angry at Andy for sure, but somehow, he was worried he would be angry at him as well. He opened his phone and reread the texts again, making sure there was nothing incriminating in them against him. He didn't see anything specifically, but he felt like there was a trap door there somewhere.

An energy burst came with the arrival of their entire missing team. The elevator opened and everyone unloaded in one fell swoop, all chattering about what they did and didn't find.

Ned got to his feet involuntarily, desperate to put his arms around Elly and hold him close. He felt sick suddenly. Something was churning in his gut. His eyes locked on Elly, and that churning turned into a hurricane. He started second guessing whether or not he should tell Elly about the texts. He was worried about his reaction. He didn't want to do anything that would make Elly not trust him, or heaven forbid, leave him.

Elly came into their side of the bullpen, slipping his messenger bag over his shoulder and next to his desk as he went to move behind it. "Hello good sirs!" he said, that springy energy lightening up the tension in the Ned's stomach. "Is our fearless leader in?"

"Waiting for you upstairs," Greg said.

Ned stood there staring at Elly, unable to speak. Bishop came around to sit behind Tony's desk, then noticed Ned's expression.

"You okay?" she asked. Ned didn't move.

Elly turned to look at him. "Ned?" he asked. "Everything okay?"

Ned shook it off and nodded. "Yeah. Just… missed you."

Elly cocked an eyebrow at him. "Likewise," he said, feeling unsure about the expression Ned was wearing. It had an ominous feeling to it, and he noticed Ned was pale. He knew there was something that wasn't being said, but he'd have to get it out of his fiancé after his meeting with Vance. Tim was waving him over to join him as he headed for the staircase.

"I'll be back soon," he said. "Ellie? You wanna fill them in on everything from today?"

"Sure!" she said, sarcastic enthusiasm dripping from her voice, then turned to Ned and Greg. Ned sat down, and they got to work.

Elly meanwhile was heading for the stairs, that uneasy feeling growing more and more in his stomach that something was wrong. He was worried that Ned had found out something he shouldn't have about the case, and maybe even Bishop or Piper. That pale expression wasn't infusing him with any confidence.

They headed into Vance's office and closed the door. Their director was sitting at the conference table and called them over to join him.

"Gentlemen," he greeted. "Come have a seat. I hear you've got some theories to run by me."

Elly looked at Tim who nodded at him to go ahead as they sat down together on opposite sides of the table with Vance sitting at the head.

"We found very little in Piper's apartment. We don't think he was taken from inside of the unit, but outside at the curb. A homeless man had taken the clothing and camera from the suitcase left behind at what we're considering the scene of abduction. That's where things get… weird."

"Weird how, Agent Critten?" Vance sat back, folding his hands with his elbows on the armrests of his chair as he scrutinized Elly.

"We discovered that he was taking his NSA credentials with him, and Bishop immediately saw that as a red flag. According to her, analysts don't take their creds with them on vacations like this because of the danger of someone finding out they're government agents. Since they don't typically make arrests there's no reason to bring them." Vance nodded noncommittally and Elly continued. "The homeless guy hocked the camera at a local pawnshop, and we were able to recover it. The memory card was still in it, and there were twelve photos on it. _Only_ twelve. Bishop says that Piper would take hundreds on his vacations, and he takes two or three vacations a year, usually to the Caribbean. When we looked at the photo details we found out that they're geotagged."

"So why these twelve photos?" Vance asked rhetorically.

"Exactly. We think that they're some kind of… clue. Like these twelve photos are significant somehow. Bishop ran the lats and longs while we were driving back, and they're from different trips. Different islands. Something's not adding up. We think he was working something on the side that he didn't tell anyone about, or at least not Bishop."

"We think he may be trying to track Crow, or someone like him, and the trips are just cover stories. Someone he's tracking is going to these places, and he's following them there," McGee interjected.

"Which would make sense," Elly said, spreading his hands out in front of him. "Because who can afford trips like these on an analyst's salary, even one as seasoned as him? And Bishop told us that Piper had a personal belief that everyone had two sides to them, and spoke of this belief often. We think _his_ other side may have been playing the role of a spy."

Vance sighed. "Have you been able to confirm with Agent Hadley whether or not Piper was working an angle on the books?"

Both men shook their heads. "We let Bishop ask Hadley since they have the kind of relationship that he'd tell her even if he shouldn't. He got all squirrelly. She feels like the NSA is holding something back from her, and in turn, us."

"Looks like it might be time for me to have a talk with their director," Vance said.

The guys nodded. Elly chewed his lip a moment, considering what he wanted to say.

"What are you thinking, Agent Critten?"

Elly looked at Vance, his face scrunching a moment in concern. "It's just that I'm getting the feeling that Bishop doesn't trust her agency. After that phone call, she doesn't trust Hadley. We approached her with the idea that Piper might even be Crow, and she stated that she doesn't think it's him, but she encouraged us to at least look into it. That's her partner, and her former supervisor, and she doesn't feel the need to defend them."

"Do you think she's somehow in on this?" Vance asked, not sure where Elly was going with this line of thought.

"No!" he said vehemently, and even McGee shook his head no. "That's just it. She's definitely _not_. But something about the way she's acting, it's almost as if she isn't surprised that Crow is a member of the NSA team. Like she's been suspicious of this all along."

"Have you confronted her about it?" Vance asked.

"No," Elly said, shaking his head. "I'm playing the politics of it. We've all befriended her rather quickly, and we've earned her trust I think, which is more than her own teammates have earned. I think her gut will help lead us in the right direction. I don't want to do anything that will force her hand until she's ready to show it, and I definitely don't want to do anything to have Hadley recall her back to the NSA."

"I completely agree," McGee said. "She's critical to the investigation, and I feel like while here she's free to explore the possibility that it's one of the people closest to her. If they recall her, not only will we lose the inside intel, but she'll be kept away from the case and run in circles, wasting critical time, and they can pull her off of the case completely. Whatever your conversation with their director looks like, I believe it's best that we don't do anything that could cause them to pull her."

"I'll keep that in mind," Vance said. "At the same time, we need to push this case hard. We have a terrorist in the NSA. Bishop may be our ace in the hole to beating the NSA at finding this bastard, and they've obviously underestimated her if they've let her come work with us. I'm sure NSA Director Spots is running their people in circles trying to find out who it is.

"What I want to know is why they let Bishop out of their sights. If it were one of you that were killed, the Gibbses wouldn't let any of you out of their sights unless they thought it was unsafe for you to be here, or unless they thought you were involved and wanted to follow where you led. Which do you think it was?"

"Safety," McGee said.

"I think it's not only her safety, but possibly that Hadley thought that she had a better chance of finding out what she needed to if the NSA wasn't breathing down her neck. She's naturally investigative. Analysts don't usually do this kind of investigating."

"I could easily see that," McGee said, nodding slowly in agreement. "There's nothing that would've stopped her from investigating this, and if Hadley knows her that well, he would know that she'd be better off with us."

"Okay," Vance said, a grim expression on his face. "I'll tread lightly while talking to their director. What do we know about our Marine?"

Tim took over the conversation, and Elly was relieved. "He was abducted from Cobb's marina in Norfolk. His boat is stored there, and it appears he was on it at the time, or was at least spending time there. His car was found in the lot without a scratch on it. Ziva and Sommers didn't find much of interest in the apartment, and neighbors said he is the local superhero. They both mentioned to me that everything they were told fell under the "too good to be true" heading. He's too perfect. They couldn't find a speck of dirt on him."

"Keep looking."

"We are, sir."

"Good. Go ahead and get back at it. I'll make the call, and then I'm due in MTAC with Agent Dorneget to talk to Davis' CO. I'd like you there as well."

Tim nodded, and the two agents got up and made their way towards the exit. Once they got there Elly stopped, then motioned to Tim that he'd be with him in a moment. He turned back to Vance as the door closed.

"Excuse me, Director," he said, moving back into Vance's line of sight.

"Yes, Agent Critten?"

"I'm just a little confused about my directive here. McGee said you wanted me to act as a liaison with the NSA, but I'm not sure in what capacity. I'm obviously not supposed to be talking to their director, and I am enjoying working with Bishop. I'm exchanging communication with Agent Hadley, but I don't really know… well I don't know what I'm doing, sir."

Vance gave Elly a sideways grin. "Sounds like you're doing just fine," he said. "Your role in this is to work with the agents and make them feel like they can trust our organization to partner with them, not against them. You're there to be friendly, share information, and obtain information. You're not there to be the hard hitter. Leave that to me. Just keep me in the loop on what you're communicating, and make the NSA feel like we're working together. And if something doesn't feel right, let me know. Agent McGee is there to guide the team. He's never had to do it like this before. He needs to focus on the case. You're there to focus on the interagency relationship."

Elly nodded. "Okay, that helps a lot. I can do that. I'll be in touch."

"I expect so."

Elly smiled, and then left Vance to make his call. He headed down the stairs running his orders through his head. Vance's explanation of what he was supposed to be doing put him at ease. He'd already been doing that, and he knew better where the lines were drawn. He appreciated that.

He looked over the railing at the team working busily at their desks. When he looked at his own desk he smiled. There was a Mountain Dew and something that looked like a pack of Starbursts sitting next to his keyboard. He felt a swell of love in his chest for his man and sent a prayer of thanks out to the universe for finding him. He remembered the expression Ned was wearing before he went upstairs, and his stomach flipped. He headed for the breakroom and pulled out his phone to text him.

 _-Hey, are you okay?_

He leaned against the counter, waiting for the response.

 _\- -Yeah, I think so. I need to talk to you privately for a few minutes when I get back from MTAC._

 _-Okay, baby. Whatever you need. Go kick ass upstairs, and I'll be waiting for you when you're done._

 _\- -Thanks :) I love you._

 _\- I love you, too._

Elly slid the phone in his pocket and looked out the window into the darkness. He had a feeling his world was about to be turned on its head, and he had no idea why, but he didn't like it.


	6. Chapter 6

_This chapter is very case intensive. Don't worry though, we're going to have plennnnnty of honeymoon! :)_

 **Chapter Six**

Ned saw the little light blinking on his phone that meant that he had a text. He'd seen Elly move towards the break room, and he assumed the message was from him. He chewed his lip as he looked at the text.

 _-Hey, are you okay?_

Ned shook his head no slightly without thinking about it. He wasn't. This was eating at him. And if he couldn't talk to his fiancé about everything, he shouldn't be marrying him. He knew he needed to tell him about the texts with Andy. Not even for Elly's sake, but his own. He needed the support, and he knew that Elly would provide it.

 _\- -Yeah, I think so. I need to talk to you privately for a few minutes when I get back from MTAC._

It only took a few seconds before the phone started blinking again. Ned smiled involuntarily at the reply.

 _-Okay, baby. Whatever you need. Go kick ass upstairs, and I'll be waiting for you when you're done._

 _\- -Thanks :) I love you._

 _\- I love you, too._

Ned got up to head into MTAC before Elly could come back into the room and distract him. He headed up the stairs, a sudden exhaustion coming over him after such a long day. He hoped Davis' CO had something good for them to work with. They needed a fresh angle to blow this case open.

He made his way into the dark room to find that Evelyn wasn't the one at the boards. She'd been replaced by Doug, an older man who only worked part time during the night. He was kind of crotchety, and Ned gave him a general greeting before looking down into his notebook to remind him for the thirtieth time of what he wanted to make sure they got answers to.

It was only a minute before McGee and Vance joined them.

"Director," Ned greeted with a nod. "Any word from Director Spots?"

"He's out of the country," Vance said bitterly.

"Oh? And can't be reached?" Vance shook his head no. "How convenient." The sarcasm was quick and finished. Ned tried to clip it, knowing it wasn't his place to comment further, but dying to.

"Hadley is trying to track him down to set up an MTAC briefing with him."

Ned gave a tight smile and nodded. He sighed as the screen started to come to life, and Tim raised an eyebrow at him. Vance turned towards the screen, and Tim mouthed, "You okay?" to Ned, who just shrugged.

Staff Sergeant Melbourne came up on the screen, and they introduced themselves. Vance gave him the rundown of the situation, and he seemed thoughtful at the description of what happened.

"You're thinking about something right now, and I'd really appreciate knowing what it is," Ned said, too tired to take anyone's evasive crap, even with the director standing there.

Melbourne's eyebrows rose, and he shook his head a little. "It's just odd. Davis is exemplary, but the last few months he was here he started acting… strange. Unfocused, detached from everyone. I tried talking to him about it, and he just said that he had a lot on his mind. The only person who he let close to him was Corporal Jessup Carmichael. They'd never been close, and then suddenly they were thick as thieves. Carmichael was the problem child of the bunch. Had a mouth on him, was always in trouble for one thing or another. I'd hoped that Davis was trying to set him straight, but… it didn't really turn out that way."

"Did Davis start following in Carmichael's footsteps? Was he getting in trouble?"

Melbourne shook his head. "No. The closet thing was that he snapped at me when I tried to ask him what was going on. But he apologized and said that he was trying to work through some stuff. He wouldn't talk about it. Said it wasn't his story to tell."

"Did he have any romantic relationships that you knew of?" Ned asked.

Melbourne shook his head again. "Not this tour. Heard he was sweet on this USO gal last tour. Don't think anything really came of it."

"What were your orders around the time Davis started acting differently?"

"We had just finished building a clinic in Hawija. Davis had taken some debris from an IED explosion, but just had to rest for a couple of days. No long term issues. I thought at first it was the incident that had done something to him. Maybe a concussion that we missed, or maybe bruised ego, though he wasn't an ego kind of guy. He was confident, no doubts, but he was a gentle giant. The guys called him Bear."

"Was Carmichael injured in the explosion?" Ned asked, putting together some pieces in his head.

"No, why?"

"Just wondering," Ned asked. "Where did you go after Hawija?"

"Al Awja. We were doing safety checks on cargo going into Tikrit from the south, and while we were there we were helping dig ditches for irrigation of a community farm. It's along the Tigris river."

"And it was during this time that Davis was… different?" McGee asked.

"Yeah. He just kept getting more and more aggravated. He was so relieved to be going home."

"Do you think there was something he was eager to get back to?" Ned asked.

"More like he was eager to get away from something. Never could figure it out though. We were only in Al Awja for two months before the tour ended. During those two months he pulled away from everyone but Carmichael. You should reach out to him. See what he knows."

"Any idea where we can find him?" McGee asked.

"He's a big city kid. New York. Bronx."

The three men in the room exchanged sideways glances at each other.

"Now it's your turn to look suspicious. What's significant about New York?"

Vance tilted his chin up a little as he answered. "It's where the organization that killed Davis is based out of."

"Shit," Melbourne said softly, running his hand through his hair, then looking back at the camera. "That's not good."

"No, it's not," Vance agreed.

"Was Davis privy to any classified material?" Ned asked.

"Of course. He knew trade routes for weapons and materials. He knew the coordinates of where we were going to build the next school and clinic, and where we'd hidden a group of women who were targeted for being a part of the last school we built."

"Were any of those women significant politically?" McGee asked.

"All of them had _some_ significance. We were hiding them from their own families. None of those families were clan leaders, or major government officials, but they were related to some clerics and influential families in various political circles."

"Did Carmichael know the same things Davis knew?" Ned was scribbling furiously in his notebook, but looked up as he asked the question.

"No, he didn't. At least not about where the women were being hidden."

"How many of your men did know?" Vance asked.

"Davis, Sergeant Quintaw and my superior, Master Sergeant Stefanopolis took Lance Corporals Hatter and Breaden to escort the women to where they're hidden. Other than them, I'm the only other one that knows."

"Did Carmichael try to befriend any of the others?" Ned's pen was poised over his notebook, the puzzle coming together halfway in his mind.

"No…" Melbourne's expression changed and Ned knew he was synching up to his way of thinking. "If Carmichael wanted to know where the women were for some reason, why would he pick on a superior officer instead of one of the Lance Corporals whose lives he could make a living hell?"

"Blackmail perhaps? Or maybe Carmichael was in trouble and went to Davis for help and got him roped in."

"I can't imagine Bear having anything that could blackmail him into giving up the location of those women." The scoff and way Melbourne sat back from the camera told Ned that he needed to walk carefully.

"Obviously he didn't give them up while he was there because he was tortured and executed here in DC last night. What I want to know is what NSA Piper knew about it that got him dragged into this."

"Well, I don't know a Piper, but we did get a tip about the potential targeting of the clinic we were building. It came down from above, but a lot of those briefings originate in NSA channels."

"We'll look into it," Vance said. "What are Davis' order now? What's his station?"

"He's at Norfolk doing logistics training. He's actually on a really light schedule right now since he's only been back a month."

Vance nodded. "We thank you for your time."

"One more question," Ned said, looking up from his notebook again. "If you had to say Davis had one weakness, what would it be?"

McGee and Vance both looked at Ned with neutral expressions, but they both thought he was crazy. Melbourne though was nodding, understanding the question.

"He cared too much."

"About?" Ned pushed.

"Other people's suffering."

Ned's heart stopped beating, the weight of Andy's texts weighing on it. Finally, he swallowed and nodded. "Thank you, sir."

The screen went dark and Ned turned to Vance and McGee. He saw their expressions, and a daunted feeling came over him. "What?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing," Vance said, giving Ned a once over before turning to walk out of the room. The others followed. "I want Carmichael. Find him."

"Yes, sir," McGee said.

"Anyone know that FBI agent that they have working with them?"

"Keo, sir? No," Ned said. They exited MTAC and entered the catwalk.

"I want whatever info the FBI has on these Children of the Prophet. Try to get it by playing nice first, and if that doesn't work let me know ASAP."

"Yes, sir," McGee said. Vance went towards his office and the other two men went down the stairs. "You try to find out whatever you can through your channels about The Children, and I'll try to ferret out the FBI's information from Fornell."

"Sounds good. I have something I have to do first. I need about fifteen minutes."

"Fair enough," McGee said, drifting away from Ned at the bottom of the stairs.

Ned moved into his side of the bullpen, opened his drawer and sat his notebook in it. He looked over at Elly and tossed his head towards the bathroom. Elly raised an eyebrow and got to his feet, following him. They went into the room, and Ned locked the main door. His heart was racing and his palms were damp almost immediately, even though they were going cold. He felt like his face and chest were on fire. The anxiety was palpable.

"I need to talk to Elly, my fiancé, not Elly my Senior Field Agent," Ned said, leaning against the door. Elly's expression filled with concern, and he nodded.

"What's wrong, baby? You look horrible. What happened?"

Ned swallowed, knowing that there was no going back now.

"I reached out to Andy for anything he may know on 'atfal Alnabii, and this happened." He handed Elly his phone. Elly gingerly reached out for it, his mouth partially open as he squinted at Ned. He tried to hold back a surge of jealous temper that he knew he needed to check. Ned was coming to him with something that obviously shook him. He looked at the phone and read through their conversation. He backed up against the wall and leaned against it, then looked up at Ned, who was wringing his hands and chewing his bottom lip.

Their eyes met and Elly's jaw dropped like he was going to say something, then he closed his mouth again, licked his lips, and cleared his throat. He took a breath and looked back at the phone, then up at Ned. "I'm not sure what you want me to say."

"I was really hoping it would be something like, 'Holy fuck, Ned! That's not fair of him to dump that kind of monster guilt trip on you'."

Elly nodded, then looked back at the phone and reread Andy's rant. Then he handed the phone back to Ned. "It's not fair."

Ned nodded, but he didn't like the tone to Elly's voice. "It's not. I know what I want, and I have it, but to know he's been hanging on for nine years like that is…" He shook his head. "I didn't realize I was hurting him like that. I didn't mean to give him any kind of false hope by staying in contact with him. He's not really a bad guy or anything. I don't want to see anyone hurt, and he at one time meant a lot more to me than an informant. I feel really, really bad."

Elly took a deep breath. He was seething on the inside. Reading what Andy had written hit him somewhere deep, and it vibrated all the wrong nerves. He knew how much Ned considered life to be precious. And this man was very well aware of that as well. So much so that he'd sought him as solace.

Ned had killed a man for Elly though, and didn't regret it. They'd talked about it numerous times. He had expected Ned to take it incredibly hard that he'd taken a life, but he hadn't. He could only say that he'd kill a hundred men to protect him, and that made him feel both loved and worried. He didn't want to take away Ned's "gentle heart". He loved that gentle heart.

This other guy obviously loved him too, and he wanted to give Ned his entire world. He was a CIA agent, and they had so much history together. Elly felt inadequate for some reason. He was always so hard to love, and he struggled so hard for so long with being able to show real love. What if he stopped being able to give Ned the love that he deserved? What if he turned cold again? Andy was willing to give up being a CIA operative for him so they could go run away together and live happily ever after. Would he be willing to give up NCIS for Ned? Would he be willing to give up everything for his fiancé?

He felt like he was going to get sick.

"What's going on in there, Elly?" Ned asked, becoming more and more concerned about how Elly was reacting. "Are you mad at me for reaching out to him?"

"No," Elly finally said, looking at Ned and steeling his face. "But are you sure? I mean, how could you be sure?"

"Sure of what, honey?" Ned asked, coming to put his arms around Elly's waist. Elly stood stiffly, unsure of how to react.

"Are you sure that I'm-" Elly's voice cracked and he had to swallow and blink multiple times, surprised by the tears welling up in his eyes. "That I'm worth it?"

"Oh my god, yes!" Ned said, pulling Elly tightly against him, his right hand going up to cradle the back of Elly's head as it rested on Ned's shoulder. " _ **You**_ are what I want. _**You**_ are what I need. You are my everything, Elly Critten. You are the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. I wouldn't be nearly as happy, as confident, as hopeful if you weren't the sunshine in my life every single day. You make me brave, and fearless, and driven because I want to give you my world, and I want that world to be worthy of you."

Elly felt himself start weeping against Ned and clung to him. Something inside of him that was old and raw and incredibly painful exposed itself to him, and he couldn't put off addressing it anymore. His new therapist warned him that something like this could happen; that he would experience emotions he'd kept hidden for years. Now was probably the worst possible timing with a joint investigation to help run, but here he was, broken in the arms of the man who for some reason made him feel like he was worth the world.

"I love you so much, Elly," Ned said, stroking his back soothingly. "I only want you, and you are very worthy of an infinite amount of love."

"I love you, too," Elly managed between sobs. He clung to Ned's jacket, pulling him tightly against him. "I don't want to lose you. It terrifies me."

Ned swallowed hard. He felt a knot in his throat at the thought of losing Elly and tried to talk around it. "Losing you terrifies me, too."

"I know. I know what you'd do for me, and I hope you know I'd do it for you, too."

"I do know," Ned said, stroking Elly's hair. "And _nothing_ is going to come between us. Not another person, or our jobs, or our fears… it's you and me until the end."

After a long couple of minutes, Elly pulled back, wiping his eyes. His face was a blotchy red mess, and Ned reached over Elly's shoulder for a paper towel to hand to Elly to blow his nose. Elly took it and blew, then tossed it in the trash.

"I'm sorry. I don't know why that just triggered me so badly. I just… I _hate him._ I know it's irrational to hate someone you've never met, but I can't help it. And I hate hating someone. It's not in my nature."

"I know it's not," Ned said, rubbing Elly's bicep. "Would you like to talk to him? Clear the air? Meet him? What's going to help?"

"No, I have a feeling he'd get his ass kicked as soon as I saw him. It's not that I don't trust you. I don't want you to think that. But for some reason he feels like a threat to me, and I just want to take him _down_. I'll talk to my therapist. See what she thinks."

"Okay." Ned looked at Elly and shook his head a little. "Come here. I'm not done holding you yet."

Elly smiled and fell against Ned, his arms going around him and Ned's embrace pulling him close. They stood like that for a couple of minutes with Ned rocking them side to side in a soft sway.

"Today's been stupid. This case needs to end so that we can go snuggle," Ned said, pouting. Elly chuckled, looking up at Ned even while their arms stayed locked around each other.

"Snuggles sound _amazing_."

"Alas," Ned said dramatically. "We are being torn apart by terrorists and traitors! Oh, the world!"

Elly laughed out loud at Ned's acting parody. "You're a complete dork, and it's totally what made me fall in love with you."

"Really?" Ned asked quietly, looking from Elly's eyes to his lips.

Elly nodded, looking at Ned's lips. "Really. Never change."

"Okay," Ned said, then leaned in and kissed Elly. Elly kissed him back, and they suddenly lost themselves. The need to touch, to be close, was like fire through their blood. Elly started reaching for Ned's belt, and Ned reached up to pull Elly's hair in that way that he knew he loved so much. Then there was a sudden _thump!_ , and they heard the last voice they wanted to hear on the other side of the door.

Their foreheads fell against each other as they sighed in resignation. They made sure they looked presentable quickly, and then opened the door to Sommers who raised an eyebrow at them standing there.

"Am I interrupting something?" he asked with a smart-ass edge to his voice.

"No, we're done talking," Ned said, holding the door open for Elly to exit first.

As Elly walked past he leaned in towards Sommers. "Get your mind out of the gutter, perv." Sommers gave him a douchebag of an expression, and then Ned stopped where he was and glared at him.

"What's your problem?" Sommers asked Ned when he turned and saw his face.

"You," Ned said. "I can't wait for our bosses to get back so that you can get lost."

He went to move past him, and Sommers grabbed his arm. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Ned laughed sardonically, and Elly turned around to watch what was happening, his teeth clamped shut at the realization that Ned was about to let the cat out of the bag, but he was utterly frozen in place, unable to stop it.

"You don't really think you're staying, do you? After that dumbass outburst in the conference room yesterday? After the way you're dragging yourself around this place like doing the _very basics_ of your job is beneath you? With the attitude you give _every single_ person in this bullpen? No. As soon as they get back, you're gone. Enjoy your career while it lasts."

Ned jerked his arm from Sommers' grasp and moved past Elly towards the bullpen. Elly nodded his discontent at Sommers' dropped jaw and then turned to follow Ned. He'd never seen Ned get so blatantly harsh, and though he knew it was going to cause hell, he had to admit he was a little turned on by it.

********WDYG?********

Bishop looked at her phone. There were three new texts from Jake and she sighed. It didn't look like she was going to make it home. She didn't have a problem with that if that's what it took to find Mark's killer, but she wasn't sure Jake was going to see it the same way. They both worked long hours sometimes, but she got the feeling this was different.

 _\- -Are you still at NCIS? Are you going to make it home tonight?_

 _\- -Ellie? Is everything okay? What have you found out?_

 _\- -Is there anything I can do? I wish you were working from your office. Then at least I could help._

Bishop sighed. She usually loved that Jake was so willing to support her, and they worked really well together when the opportunity presented itself. She felt like she had to do this on her own though. Mark was her partner. This was personal. Thoughts swirled through her head and she hoped to God that Mark didn't end up being Crow. It didn't fit, but so much about this situation was far out there and unexplained.

She texted Jake back that she didn't think she would be home, and that they didn't have any real leads. She wasn't sure what Hadley would be okay with her telling him, so she left things vague.

Ned and Elly came back from wherever they had gone, and their expressions left her feeling uneasy. Elly was looking over at Ned worriedly, and Ned looked… odd. She couldn't tell if he was pissed or happy.

"McGee wants us all to gather what we have and head to the conference room to debrief. He said the research can wait," Greg informed them.

Elly shuffled around and got his laptop and a notebook. Bishop gathered a stack of files. Greg took the reports he'd been reading and notes. Ned sighed, opened his drawer and grabbed his notebook. He printed off a couple of things quickly, and then the group of them headed for the stairs.

They found Ziva and Tim in the conference room waiting for them. Sommers wasn't there yet. Elly was worried that Ned's verbal smackdown on Sommers was going to get them in trouble somehow, either with McGee and Vance, or with Sommers.

They all sat down, each of them looking as tired as the next. McGee was waiting quietly for them to get settled. Once they were all seated, the door opened, but it was Abby and Jimmy who walked in, not Sommers. McGee sighed as he realized Sommers was MIA, then shook his head.

"I will go get him if you'd like," Ziva offered quietly.

"Don't bother. We'll move on without him. Will probably be easier that way anyway." Ziva nodded at McGee and then set back in her chair, looking around the room.

Jimmy smiled and gave everyone a little wave, then moved to sit at the other end of the table from the door.

"Hi! I'm Abby!" Abby said to Bishop, holding out her hand. Bishop smiled at her and shook it.

"It's nice to meet you. I've heard impressive things," she said.

"Aw, you guys!" Abby said with a smile as she sat next to Bishop. "It goes both ways," she said quietly as she leaned towards the other woman, earning another smile from her. Bishop liked her immediately.

McGee leaned forward on the head of the table, addressing the group. "We've all been spread out through the day, and I wanted us to get all of the information down in one place. Fornell is going to try to get us what he can from what the FBI knows, but we need to consolidate what _we_ know." He got to his feet and went over to the large whiteboard he'd rolled up from the bullpen. "Let's take it one by one and get the basics down. Who wants to start?"

"I will," Bishop said. "So far we have pretty good reason to believe that The Children of the Prophet are behind the murders. Their group has someone communicating between them and ISIS, believed to be a man, who is referred to by agencies familiar with him as Crow. He goes by that name on secret message boards that Ned and I have infiltrated. Mark had access to those boards as well.

"Because Mark was taken the morning before he left for a week's vacation, and I say vacation loosely right now, we believe that Crow, or at least one of his informants, works at the NSA and knew Mark or his work schedule."

"Playing devil's advocate here," Greg said, one elbow on the table as he was turned to look at the whiteboard that Tim was writing notes on. "What if it's just someone who hacked Mark's phone or something and found out about his trip that way?"

Bishop nodded. "I'd have liked to believe that myself, but this wasn't just a random person from the NSA. Mark was the Senior Analyst for Middle Eastern Communications. He and I had just written an analysis of communications between ISIS and Crow, and Crow to the Children and another quasi-organization called Only. Only is out of California though, and is incredibly disorganized. The only people who knew that Mark was the main analyst were our people and a couple of FBI agents."

"Have you narrowed down a list of people who have had access to that paper?" Tim asked.

"The NSA is narrowing it down and working that angle. I was warned that my name is on that list." Bishop clamped her lips shut in a tight sarcastic smile, then looked up at McGee, who nodded at her.

"Don't worry," Elly said, getting her attention. "We know better."

"Do you though?" she asked. "I thought I knew better, too, but someone in my house is a traitor. The entire NSA is up for scrutiny. I'll feel better when I've been thoroughly vetted. The one thing I have going for me is that I co-authored the paper, so there shouldn't be any research that Mark had access to that I didn't. It actually makes me more of a target than a possible traitor."

"Yeah, not really sure I would say that's what you've got _going for you_ ," Ned said with a shake of his head.

Bishop chuffed and nodded. "Do you want me to continue with what we did and didn't find at Mark's?"

McGee nodded. "When we searched Mark's apartment earlier we didn't find anything worth much to the case, though I'm hopeful we pull something off the thumb drives and computer we took. However, we did find out that Mark's suitcase had been found out in front of his building, so we believe that's where he was taken. A-"

"Hold up," Elly said. "What was his address again? I want to map this."

"4219 Blount Street."

"Thanks. Please continue."

"A homeless man had discovered the suitcase and taken the clothing and camera from it. We found the suitcase, and inside were Mark's credentials, which is weird for us. We don't carry our creds with us all the time like one of your agents or a cop would. We analysts don't usually arrest people, so we have no need, and it's safer if we don't take them on trips. We were able to retrieve the camera from the pawn shop that he hocked it at, and that's where things get… weird."

"How so?" Ziva asked. Bishop turned to address the table instead of watching Tim writing at the whiteboard. "There are twelve pictures on the camera. _Only_ twelve. He takes _hundreds_ of pictures when he goes on his beach trips."

"And he takes a lot of trips," Ziva said, remembering her original workup of him.

"Yeah, every few months he's going on another. And there's so many pictures it's unreal. So, we wondered why were _these_ twelve saved on the camera, and that's when McGee realized that the pictures were geotagged. I ran the numbers and the pictures are from twelve different trips. I can't find any similarities in the photos other than they are at the beach."

"We believe that Mark may have been working on a side operation of some sort," Elly explained.

"And Agent Hadley wasn't very forthcoming with information," McGee added. "Which is why Director Vance is trying to get in touch with their director."

" _But,_ he's conveniently out of the country," Ned said, with more than a touch of frustrated sarcasm.

There were nods around the table. McGee fiddled with the marker in his hands and turned to Abby. "Care to go next?"

"Sure! I haven't had a chance to work on the computer yet, but it's my next project. I've been busy, but it's worth it. There are multiple blood types on our Marine's clothing. He put up a fight. There are also skin samples under his nails. So far none of the samples are getting a hit though. I'm running them through every database possible though, so if someone has them on file, we'll find them.

She looked at Bishop with a sad smile as she decided to call Piper by his first name for her benefit. "Mark's clothing only shows two blood types- his and Davis'. And a lot of Davis' is on his back, which leads me to believe that they were tied together or forced to sit back to back after they had been carved into. Mark's shoe however is covered with great stuff! Not only was there sand on his shoes, but sawdust. I narrowed it down, and the dust is from a specific type of lumber called Purple Heart. It's imported from South America, and there are three places that boast the use of it within a hundred-mile radius. I've emailed you all the locations, except for you Ellie because I didn't know your email address."

"That's awesome!" Ned said, suddenly ecstatic at what could be a breakthrough.

"You're amazing, Abs," Tim said, his shoulders slouching the slightest. "We'll finish up here and then go check them out."

Jimmy raised his hand timidly, then picked up. "Also, Ducky said to tell you that the carvings were done with a straight blade, most likely a knife with at least a centimeter-wide blade within four millimeters from the tip."

Abby jumped in. "I'm narrowing down possibilities now. And the murder weapon is a nine-millimeter, but we're still working out what specific type."

Jimmy parried her. "And Davis has multiple contusions from what looks like a metal rod or something thin, like a fire poker. It's not wide enough to be a baseball bat, and it would've had to been some _really_ strong wood with how hard Ducky thinks he was hit, so probably metal."

"What about Mark?" Bishop asked quietly.

Abby shook her head. "He doesn't have those kinds of markings on him." She hesitated, then continued. "But he'd lost a lot of blood from there they cut him multiple times. Considering how things went, that's probably a godsend. He would've been delirious by time they shot him. He wouldn't have felt much, and it looks like he held out at long as he could."

Bishop nodded, her lips in a grim expression. She laid her hand on top of Abby's that sat on the table. "Thanks," she said somberly. Abby nodded, her own expression fallen.

"What about you guys?" McGee asked, looking from Ned to Greg.

Greg shrugged and looked at Ned.

"We believe The Children are using some kind of watchtower as their headquarters in New York. Either that or some kind of tower, like a water tower, or the roof maybe of a tall building. They call it the watchtower, only in Arabic of course. We also believe that The Children are actually _children_. Or at least young adults. Their linguistic patterns show that they're probably between sixteen and twenty-four. Their dynamic is like that of a gang. This was probably a group of people who took these two. They would have to be in order to capture a seasoned Marine."

"Unless, of course," Greg said, gesturing aimlessly, "they created some kind of rouse and coerced him. Thinking maybe using one of the youngest of them to look like they were being kidnapped, then they all turn on the Marine, subdue him somehow, and get him locked in a van. Maybe used blackmail."

"That would be conducive to the lack of evidence we found," Ziva said. "We discovered that Davis was taken from Cobb's marina in Norfolk. His car and boat are both still there, and there were the remains of a lunch in the trash can, but it smelled horrible. We're estimating the same time of capture. The owner of the marina is going to overnight us the security footage from this past week. He has to burn it all to DVD, and he stated he would work all night on it. He's going to begin with Friday and will check to see if he can find anything happening to Davis. He knew him, and seemed quite fond of him. Was very distraught when I told him of Davis' passing."

"Oh, and we have his car," Abby said. "But I don't think we're going to find any evidence there. It's pristine." Ziva nodded her agreement.

"Then there's what Davis' CO told us in MTAC just now." Ned looked to McGee for his approval to continue. He got the nod, and started in. "Davis was slightly injured four months ago during an IED explosion at a clinic they were building in Hawija. After that, his behavior started to change. He disconnected from everyone except one Corporal Carmichael. Carmichael was the trouble maker of the unit. They had never been close before, and then suddenly they're all up in each other's business, and they isolated themselves from everyone. CO says that Davis was eager to get away from the unit and come home. Carmichael lives in New York. Coincidence? I think not."

Tim continued for him. "The only classified information that we believe Davis knew that Carmichael didn't was the location of a group of women that were being targeted for being students in a school the unit had built earlier in their tour. Davis and a few others took the women and hid them somewhere. It could be that Carmichael was trying to find out where they were or was being threatened to find out the location. He could also have been blackmailing Davis to find the location."

"Obviously wasn't good enough blackmail if it took torture to get it out of him," Greg said with a raised eyebrow.

"Truth," Elly said, clacking away as he took notes of everything being said.

"Anything we're forgetting?" Tim asked.

Ned turned towards the group. "Davis' CO believes that Davis' biggest weakness was that he cared too much about human suffering. His unit called him "Bear" because he was a gentle giant. It's possible that they used torturing Piper as a way to coerce the information they wanted out of him."

Ned looked up cautiously at Bishop, who swallowed hard and nodded.

"It could be that the location of the women is what Crow was hired to find out. How he knew to come after Davis and Mark though is…"

"I believe Carmichael gave Davis up," McGee said. "The Director wants him. We're going to get him. What we need to find out is what Piper had that would've made him valuable in that hunt."

Bishop thought about it, but shook her head. "Unless he'd figured out who Crow was, or it has something to do with his trips, I can't think of what it is. There was no specific mention of a group of women hiding or locating someone of importance."

"What was the wording they used?" Greg asked, gesturing at Ned.

Ned picked up on his question, thinking about a conversation they'd had while reviewing the paper for a billionth time. "That they had a favor they needed done, and that if it was completed it would be rewarded."

"Yeah," Greg said. "But didn't it say in the paper that it was worded as a possible veiled threat? If Crow complied, he'd be rewarded. If he didn't, there would be consequences."

"What if Carmichael is Crow?" Ziva asked. "He is in New York, would have access to Davis. Maybe he was being threatened, and that is why Davis was trying to help him."

"But how would they have known that Piper was going to be vulnerable this week?" Bishop asked.

"Maybe he threatened someone at the NSA to get him the information he needed?" Ziva said.

"So, the NSA mole isn't Crow, but is an unwilling informant?" Elly asked, raising an eyebrow at Bishop.

"Mmmm. I don't know. That doesn't feel right, you know?" Bishop said. "I just feel like knowing as much about Mark, with him being such a private person, they would've had to be internal."

"What I'm wondering," McGee said, "is why the kidnappers didn't take the camera themselves. I mean, if they knew that he was a part of a side operation of some sorts, then why didn't they sack his apartment or at least his suitcase for information?"

There was a quiet in the room, then Abby spoke up. "They didn't know what they were looking for. Maybe they did the kidnapping, but this Crow does his own dirty work and did the torture."

"That would make sense," Greg said. "The other murders that The Children have taken credit for have been straight kills except for the carving. There has been no torture."

"And what was done to them was pretty sadistic," Palmer said a little too energetically. He sat back and tucked his chin as he glanced up at Bishop. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"No, it's true," McGee said. "The techniques used were not for the faint of heart. Broken bones, multiple lacerations in just the right places to keep a person alive while suffering, a beating… this is the kind of stuff someone works up to."

"Not a beginner, or even a group of beginners, especially not children," Greg agreed.

"Unless we're talking about a natural born sadist," Ned suggested.

"We would've seen the signs of that in previous kills though," Bishop said. "Unless they're new to the group."

"Maybe Crow is NSA, and he has a partner that knows information extraction," Ziva said.

"We're looking for two psycho terrorists now?" Ned said with a sigh, reaching up to run his hand through his short curls.

"Or someone in the CIA," Elly said with a hefty dose of snark, looking at Ned. Ned looked back up and locked eyes with him. They stared a long moment, and then they both looked away and back at the group.

"True," McGee said. "Wouldn't be the first time we've dealt with a rogue CIA agent." He made sure not to glance at Ziva, not meaning to bring up bad memories with Ray, but knowing he just did.

Elly sighed. "I say we go search these warehouses together that Abby has found, see what we find, and then see if it leads us to a next step."

"I'd like to stay behind and search the message boards for anything I can find on the missing women," Ned said. "Now that I know what I'm looking for, it might be easier to spot."

"I'd like to stay with him," Bishop added.

"It's probably safer if you do," McGee said. "Okay. Let's take a trip. Any suggestions on which one of these places to start with Abs?"

"I'd start with the old Henderson Lawn and Lumber. They have numerous garages and warehouses, and they only use half of them in the summer because they're focused on the lawncare side of their business."

"Perfect. Elly, why don't you, Ziva and Greg go pack up the cars. I'm going to go find Sommers and probably send him home. I don't have the energy to deal with him, and I think at this point we'll get more done without him." Tim clipped the lid back on the dry erase marker and put it on the ledge of the board. He'd notated the theories and facts, and it had helped him clear his head and start making connections between the messes they've all dealt with throughout the day.

He was ready to go chew Sommers a new one. If he wasn't willing to be a team player, then he wasn't welcome on the team. He debated talking to Vance first, but then realized that it would be better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. Knowing Vance's reaction to what the jackass had said in the conference room the day before made him feel more secure in his decision. He took out his phone and took pictures of the whiteboard, and then erased it so the information wouldn't be laying around for anyone and everyone to find. He left it in the room though so they could reconvene later. If there's one thing that Tony taught him, it was the brain power of a good campfire.

Everyone else had set about their tasks but Abby. She hung back for a minute, and Tim hadn't realized it until he was about to walk out the door. He smiled once he saw her, and she smiled back.

"Sierra is keeping Amira tonight and all day tomorrow. Hopefully one of us will be relieved to take over tomorrow night."

"You're truly amazing, Abs. I hadn't even thought about Amira. This has been so screwed up."

"I know," she said, coming up to him to give him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Just don't make things more complicated than they have to be."

He hugged her back. "I'm going to do my best."

"Are you really going to send Sommers home?" she asked, letting go.

"Oh yeah. I'm done babysitting him. We have work to do, and if he's not willing to do it, he's not welcome here."

"Oooo… tough Tim! I like it!"

Tim laughed a little at her expression. "Well, to be honest it's more like exhausted Tim."

"Well, I will put a pot of coffee on if you want."

"Thanks, but I just want to get moving. Hopefully getting out there and doing some real ground work will get my blood pumping naturally."

"Okay. Good luck! I mean, I don't really know what good luck looks like in a situation like this, but I hope whatever you find leads to more answers than questions. You know, like a signed confession by Crow, and his dead body with a self-inflicted bullet hole through his head."

"If only," Tim said, then led her out of the room. She headed for the elevator at the end of the catwalk, and he looked over the railing at the bullpen. He didn't see Sommers. He pulled out his phone to call him, but after five rings it went to voicemail. He hung up and texted him instead.

 _-Where the hell are you?_

He took the stairs down to his desk and started packing up his go-kit. He was on the elevator on his way to the garage when his phone chimed.

 _\- - It doesn't matter since apparently I'm not going to be an agent much longer. I'll show you all just what I'm capable of. Just wait._

"Shit," Tim cursed under his breath. "Where is this coming from? I don't need this right now." He stepped out into the garage and went over to Ziva. "What did you say to Sommers today?

Ziva looked at him, somewhat surprised by the accusatory tone to his voice. "I am sure I said a lot of things, but I tried to behave. Why?"

Tim held up his phone so that she could read the message.

"Oh, my. I did not say anything to him to cause _that_ ," she said, looking back at the phone for a moment to reread it.

"What's up?" Elly asked, coming to join them. Tim held up the phone for him to read the message as well. Elly grimaced. "Yeah… that was Ned's bad."

"What?!" Tim choked out in frustration.

"Yeah. I mean, in the moment, I understood it, but now looking back… see, Ned and I had to talk about something private, locked ourselves in the bathroom for a few minutes to chat, Sommers came along and insinuated that we were getting x-rated in there, and Ned kinda snapped at him."

"What did he say?"

"That he wanted the Gibbses to get home so that they could fire him. Basically, that he's been a lazy jerk and that he was getting the boot."

Tim groaned. "I mean, yeah, okay, it was obvious that was what was going to happen, but Ned didn't know that officially. He shouldn't have said anything."

"I know! I agree, but it just kinda happened, and then it was too late to put the proverbial cat back in the bag."

Tim turned around and started texting furiously at Sommers, and Elly grimaced again at Ziva who looked over at Tim in worry.

 _-If you want to prove what you're made of and that you deserve to be on this team you'll start acting like a damn team player and get engaged. That means that you don't whine about everything, you offer CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, and you try to make a difference. We have work to do, and you're not doing it. Just had a very enlightening meeting, and you weren't there. Now you don't have all of the info, crucial info, and you're off doing something stupid. Get your ass down to the garage in the next five minutes, or go turn your badge into Vance._

Tim stowed his kit in the trunk of the car, making room so it wouldn't get smashed by anything heavier than it. His phone chimed, and he tried to keep a cool head. He was tired, he was angry, and he was frustrated that his first case as acting team lead had to be such a twisted investigation.

 _\- -You don't have the power to order me around like that._

 _-Like hell I don't. You want me to go tell the Director right now the crap you're pulling? Going AWOL in the middle of a high level investigation? I'll walk up there right now and watch him fire you on the spot. This is your ONLY second chance. You're down to three minutes._

 _\- - Even if I wanted to I couldn't be there in three minutes. I left the Yard._

 _\- To do what?!_

 _\- -Meet a contact._

 _-You're not cleared to talk to anyone outside of the agency about this case. I'm going upstairs to Vance._

 _\- - Wait! I'll meet you wherever. Just tell me where you guys are going, and I'll meet you there._

Tim wasn't sure why he was giving Sommers the chance to make this right, but as he sat behind the wheel of the car he took a deep breath and counted to ten. Then sent the address to him.

 _\- -I'll be there in fifteen minutes._

Elly opened the door and got into the front seat, gingerly looking over at Tim. "I'm sorry. I was going to warn you once we had a minute, but he kinda beat me to it."

Tim sighed and shook his head, looking at Elly. He saw the genuine apology in his eyes and shrugged. "It's nothing he shouldn't have had the common sense to know for himself. It's almost like he's trying to get fired."

"What's he doing?"

"He said he was going to go meet a contact. He's been behind a desk for the past week and he has a contact?"

"Who the hell is he talking to about _this_ case?" Elly said, sitting back against the door and looking at Tim with his mouth hanging open.

"No idea, but I told him he couldn't talk about it, and that if he didn't get here immediately I was going to Vance. He said he'd meet us at the lumberyard."

"That dumbass," Elly said. He was about to say more when Ziva and Greg climbed into the backseat.

Tim stopped the questions before they could start. "Sommers is meeting us there."

Ziva and Greg exchanged a look as they put their seatbelts on, but didn't say anything. Elly slipped his belt on as well, then pulled out his phone to try and discreetly text Ned.

 _\- -Ooooo… you in trouble…._

 _-What? Why?_

 _\- -For spilling the beans to the jackass that he wasn't going to be around much longer._

 _-Crap. That's nothing he shouldn't have already figured out. I mean, I was only guessing, but come on- duh. He should've known how deep the shit was he'd dug himself into._

 _\- -Well, he hadn't. So now he's off trying to play informant, and McGee is all pissy, and the tension in the car right now is at a ten. I think McGee is going to strangle Sommers once we get to the lumberyard._

 _-Wait- he didn't send him home?_

 _\- -Apparently not, but I think that's only so that he can keep him close so he doesn't do anything stupid to jeopardize the case._

 _-He wouldn't do something that stupid, would he?_

 _\- - :-O The dumbass called Leroy Jethro and Tony Gibbs' honeymoon a fuckfest- *to their faces*. I mean, the levels of stupidity this guy is capable of already baffles me. Where his limits are, no one knows._

Ned laughed out loud and shook his head. He texted back that he was going to apologize to McGee and get back to work, then opened a text to Tim.

 _-I am so sorry. It just kinda happened. I mean, just imagine him dropping a snide comment to Abby about the two of you having sex in her lab or something. That's how angry I was. And shit has gone down today on a personal level I can't even talk about, and then he was there, and I know I was wrong, but… it felt so damn good. Still, if anyone took that crack at him, it should've been you. You've earned it. Let me know how I can make it up to you._

He put down the phone and continued reading what he was previously looking at on his screen.

"What's up?" Bishop asked.

Ned looked up at her with a questioning glance. "Hmm?"

"The texts. You looked like something was wrong."

"Oh. I said something out of line to Sommers earlier. Kinda ratted out that he's getting canned when our bosses get back."

Bishop grimaced and hissed.

"Yeah," Ned said with a grimace of his own. "He has done some pretty ridiculous things since he joined their team a couple of weeks ago. The only reason why he made it this long was because of the honeymoon."

"Like what?" Bishop asked, wondering what he could've done to fuck things up in just two weeks.

"Besides bitching about every single task in front of him, we had a meeting yesterday to discuss roles during the bosses' vacation. He was going to get put on some data entry while we all worked on our cold case database project. He said, to their faces mind you, "You mean I'm going to get stuck on desk duty so these two can go fuck for a week?"

"No he didn't!"

"Yeah. He did."

"Wow…" Bishop sat with her mouth hanging open for a minute, then closed it and shook her head. "I don't even know your bosses, but if they manage teams like yours, they must be a force to be reckoned with. I'd hate to have watched that bloodbath."

"That's the thing!" Ned exclaimed. "They didn't do anything! It was Greg that finally exploded and tore into him!"

"Wait? Greg? Quiet, thoughtful Greg?"

Ned nodded emphatically. "Oh yeah. Blew his top. Tore him a new one. And the rest of us just kind of stared him down."

"I think I would've ran out of the room with my tail tucked between my legs."

"He should've. He didn't even apologize. Tony just dismissed the meeting. It was nuts."

"Remind me to never get on Greg's bad side," Bishop said, opening another report.

"It's really hard to do, unless you're screwing with someone on the team or his family. He's really protective of us. And we're really protective of him."

"I can tell. When he was talking about his wife earlier you both just stopped and watched him with these smiles on your faces like he was your brother or something."

"He is. His story is… well, tragic. Foster kid. His foster brother and him are super tight, but that story has a tragic past too. He's in a much better place in his life now than he ever has been. If anyone tries to fuck it up for him they're going to have to deal with us, and it won't end well."

Bishop nodded slowly. Then she thought about something, and Ned saw it cross her face.

"What?" he asked.

"It's just that Marines are notorious for having each other's backs. I know that it happens, but I just don't know how Carmichael could've turned on Davis like that. It just doesn't feel right."

"Yeah, but for those of us who have worked here long enough, we get used to finding out that the Marine loyalty gets bypassed more often than you'd think. For money, for women, for drugs, for pride and ego… betrayal is more commonplace than any of us would like to think."

"It's so sad. I mean, we civilians look at our military as having such a profound code of honor. To see it obliterated by something like this is disenchanting."

"Sad is an understatement my friend." Ned and Bishop exchanged melancholy looks, then dove back into their paperwork.

********WDYG?********

Tim pulled the car up in front of the warehouses. He looked over at Elly who nodded that they were in the right place. They saw a red two door car across the street, and Sommers got out looking for all intents and purposes like an inflated, petulant child. The other four got out and made their way to the trunk to pull out some light gear.

Sommers joined them.

"Not a word," Tim said, looking at him. "We're searching these buildings because traces of a rare sawdust were found in our vic's shoes. We're here to see what we can find, if this is even where we need to be."

The group followed Tim up to the building in front of them. He motioned for Ziva, Sommers and Greg to take the left side. He and Elly took the right. They circled a few buildings, shining flashlights into the windows and seeing woodshops and a nursery. They moved to the large curved hangar-like buildings towards the back of the property. They were circling a second hangar shaped building when they noticed the large barn-sized door on the backside was open halfway.

A few hand motions later and Ziva and Greg were ducking inside, flashlights and guns out. Elly followed next, then Tim and Sommers. They all stopped in their tracks in the middle of the room once their lights landed on the scene in front of them.

"Holy shit," Elly said softly.

"That's fucked up," Sommers said, sliding his gun back in his holster.

Greg took a step closer and shook his head. "Well, looks like we found the place. Now what?"

"Call Ducky," Tim said. "This is going to be a long night."


	7. Chapter 7

_Hello Loves! Thank you for the reviews and feedback. I'm enjoying being back in this universe. This chapter brings some of those case questions together and things start taking shape. The timeline *should* go a little quicker from here on. (It's taken me seven chapters to cover 36 hours of 'verse time. Might be a record for me!) Enjoy!_

 **Chapter Seven**

Bishop looked at the blinking light on her phone again and practically growled. She didn't know what else she could tell Jake. She picked up the phone and found the text button.

\- -I'm so sorry to leave you in a time like this, but they're sending me to Los Angeles. I'm catching the last flight out tonight. I don't know when I'll be back. I could be there for a day, could be a week. Are you going to be okay?

Bishop sighed in relief. She loved her husband, and work had kept them apart a lot lately, but if he was safe in L.A. then she would have space to work uninterrupted.

-I'm fine. The NCIS teams are hunting down a lead. I'm sitting in their office with one of their people going through our documents to see if we can find anything. Are you still working their wiretapping drama?

\- -I don't even know what I'm working yet. All I know is that they need me there and it will be explained upon arrival.

Bishop smirked. –Ooo… sounds all secret agent!

\- - Haha! Not my speed. I'm probably going to pull my hair out as soon as they tell me what I'm there for.

-Be safe, try to have fun, and I love you.

\- -I love you, too. Keep me in the loop. I hate that you're not working with our people on this. I don't trust other agencies with our data, so imagine how I feel about them with you. Are you sure you can't come back to the office? At least while I'm gone so I know you're safe?

After some serious eye rolling, Bishop responded.

-I'm ten times safer here. These people trust me, and they've taken me under their wing. At the office I'm a suspect.

\- -A suspect? Why?

-Because I knew Mark's schedule and have some of the skills and access required to know critical pieces of this case.

There was a long pause between texts, to the point that Bishop had picked up her report and resumed combing it for information.

\- -I'm sorry. I hadn't thought of that. I don't want you in harm's way. Maybe you should ask to be relieved of the case completely.

A scoff this time.

-I can take care of myself. Besides, I need to be here. I need to clear myself, and I need to find who did this to Mark. He was my partner and my friend. No one will understand him like I will. And after working with these people, I believe that they are our best chance at finding out who did this. I seriously had no idea they were hiding this powerhouse of skills. We *will* find Mark's killer, and when we do, he'd better be ready.

\- -You're scaring me Ellie. This doesn't sound like you.

-I feel more like myself than I have for a long time.

\- -We should talk when I get home. Or before then. I have to go for now. Got a plane to catch.

-Okay. Safe travels.

\- -Thanks. Good luck with the case.

Bishop sat as far back as she could from her perch on top of Tony's desk, and crossed her arms.

"What's up?" Ned asked.

Her arms came uncrossed and she turned to Ned. "It's Jake, my husband. He's being all weird and protective, like he's afraid I'm going to be abducted by you guys and never come back to the NSA. And he's trying to talk me out of being a part of this case altogether because he's afraid I'm in danger. I tried to tell him that I'm perfectly safe, but he doesn't get it. I _have_ to do this, Ned. I _have_ to find Mark's killer."

Ned was taken aback somewhat by the passion his new friend was demonstrating, but he understood it. If something happened to someone on his team, he'd be acting the same way. However, he'd gotten the impression that the NSA people weren't that close.

"You and Mark were really close, huh?" he asked.

Bishop nodded. "Yeah. He was senior analyst, and he picked me as his partner. Not all analysts have partners. I didn't before Mark. Most of our team knows that this position is really training to take his place one day, and he chose me. I tried to tell him that I wanted to be in the field more and that I wasn't sure if this is what I wanted to do with my life, but he said that I would be surprised at how important the job was."

"Well," Ned started, thinking through what he was being told and what he'd learned of Mark so far. "If Mark was working on a side operation, he probably chose you because he believed that out of the analysts you had the best potential to continue with those kinds of projects."

Bishop looked from him to aimlessly scan the room as she thought of that, her mouth half open. "I hadn't thought of that," she said softly.

"If that's the case, what has he been teaching you that doesn't fit exactly in with your work?" he asked, feeling like there was a string there that needed to be pulled.

Bishop's gaze fell on him again, this time much more alert. "You may be on to something there."

"What are you thinking?" he pulled gently.

"He's taken me to the range with him a couple of times. I already knew how to shoot, but he told me it was a skill I should never let get rusty."

Ned started scribbling things in his notebook and encouraged her to continue.

"He made me sit through all of his vacation photos. I wonder if there's something there I'm missing."

"We should check with Abby on the photos," Ned suggested. "She's got the computer and thumb drives."

"Yeah, but there were other things. Like, he practiced his Spanish with me. I took it in high school and he would make me practice with him, saying it kept him "linguistically in shape" for his trips. Now I think he was trying to keep _my_ Spanish skills polished and comfortable."

Ned continued writing, "Good. What else?"

"We'd sit in sometimes on briefings for other departments. He said it was to keep us fresh. We needed to understand where the organization was going, and that his style may not work for me one day so I needed to pay attention to the others to piece together my own style. He wanted me to know the analysts from the other departments, though he never really gave the impression that he had any special relationships with any of them."

"If you were running an undercover operation with another agent, and no one could know, would you do anything that could make you seem like you had a special relationship with any of them?"

"No," Bishop said, tapping her fingers on the desk. "I'd steer completely clear of them."

"But if you were an agent that might get paired with you one day on said undercover mission, would you watch and observe from afar, or would you take the opportunity to meet you and get to know you?' he prompted.

"I guess that's personal choice. I don't particularly remember anyone watching me, but there were a dozen analysts that would want to talk to us when we came over to their meetings."

"Well, were they a bunch of nerdy guys, because no offense, you're young and pretty, and you know…"

Bishop laughed. "There were a couple that fit that, but many analysts are communications people, not tech geeks. They know how to talk to people. A lot of them choose not to, but they know how if they need to."

"Point taken," Ned kept scribbling. "So… did any of them talk to you in particular?"

"Of course. I've got friends at work. We just aren't super close. I spent most of my time with Jake and Mark, sometimes Hadley. There's Angela, too. She's in Eastern Europe communications though, not Middle Eastern or anything to do with the Caribbean. We share some technique tips from time to time, but she's more of the kind of friend I go get my hair done with and talk about our husbands."

They sat in silence for a minute while Bishop thought. She looked at Ned, chewing her bottom lip as she thought about something. She tilted her head to the side a little and considered it. Ned waited patiently.

"Hadley introduced me to someone once. Hadley used to be my and Mark's supervisor, then he moved into the role he's in now. But when he called me in a couple of years ago to let me know that I was going to be Mark's pick for his partner and eventual protégé, he was in a meeting with someone else. I walked in, thinking I was going to find Hadley alone, but he was with a man about ten years older than me. He was introduced as simply Devon. And Mark informed me of my new position with Mark by explaining to Devon who I would be working with and what I'd be doing."

Bishop got lost in the memory, trying to pick it apart. Hadley had smiled up at Devon and said, "This is Ellie Bishop. She's going to be Mark's new analytic partner and he's going to bring her up to take his place one day as Senior Analyst of Middle Eastern Communications."

Ellie had been honored, but was also daunted by the responsibility. She'd met with Mark, but only because she was asked to, not because she was sure that was what she wanted to do one day. She'd even expressed as much to Mark when they talked, but he'd just smiled and nodded and told her that she'd be surprised by everything it opened the doors to.

"Devon," she told Ned. "I never saw him again, but Hadley introduced me to him like he was an old friend of his, like he had his complete trust. I may as well have walked in on them talking baseball with how casual the meeting went. Devon was really laid back, cheerful… he shook my hand, congratulated me, and gave me a once over. He was kind of cute, but he saw my wedding band and asked me if I was married. He glanced over at Hadley with a… look. I couldn't place it at the time, but thinking back it was with concern. Once I explained that Jake was an NSA lawyer, his expression changed back to the cheerful one. I thought he was just bummed that I wasn't single, but now that I look back at that… it looks completely different."

"Do you think Hadley had set Mark and Devon up on whatever operation was taking Mark to the islands?" Ned asked.

"I may be reading too much into it, but if anyone was partnering with Mark on these trips, I would bet money that it's Devon."

"We should go check out those pictures with Abby. Maybe Devon is in one of the photos."

"Let's go." Bishop hopped down from her roost atop of Tony's desk. Ned locked down his computer and put the files in his desk drawer, locking them up as well. Then he led Bishop towards the elevator. He felt like he was going down the rabbit hole, and he didn't know if he should be opening this Pandora's box without talking to McGee and Elly. Their purpose wasn't to expose an NSA operation, but to find out who killed Mark. If Mark was killed by Crow, it may not have anything to do with the operation, but he had a feeling that it was too late. The box was open.

********WDYG?********

Tim looked at the scene before him and swallowed. This is not what he expected to find. He needed answers, not more problems. He sighed and stepped closer to the body hanging from the ceiling and shined his flashlight on it.

"Somebody try to find some light in here," he shouted over his shoulder. He could practically feel the people behind him scatter with how sensitive his nerves were at the moment.

The man hanging from the chains attached to the rafters looked pale and deflated. Tim looked down and realized belatedly that the man was missing his feet, and there was a pool of blood that he followed until he realized it was under his own shoes. He grimaced. Abby was going to kill him. He almost wished Gibbs was there to smack him upside the back of the head. He hadn't watched where he was stepping. He tried to console himself that it was really too dark in the room to realize that the blood pool had spread that far out. He shined the light on it and wondered how, and if, there was any blood left in their victim.

He stepped gingerly out of the pool of blood as Elly came to stand next to him. He reached his hands out, stopping him just in time before he too contaminated their scene. Elly looked confused and then Tim shined his flashlight on the ground.

"Oh, that's gross," Elly said. "Thanks for the warning."

Tim just nodded. Elly moved around a large piece of machinery that was covered with a clear tarp and then Tim heard him curse.

"Fuck," he said softly. "We've got a second victim," he shouted through the building. Suddenly all the lights came on.

"Found the lights," Sommers shouted.

"Figured that out, genius," Elly muttered to himself and crouched down next to the victim. "Hey, McGee?"

"Yeah," Tim said, still unwilling to move as to not spread the blood everywhere, cringing at the knowledge that he would never be able to wear these shoes again because they were now evidence.

"This one is really young. We'll be lucky if he's 18."

Tim sighed heavily and closed his eyes. "Guess Dorney and Parke's theory about them being kids was right on."

Elly stood up and looked past the machinery at Tim. "Gunshot wound to the head. Small caliber, thankfully. I'm no expert, but it doesn't look like the blood he has on him was from previous activities. Must've been an observer."

"Could he have been kidnapped, too?" Tim asked, wondering if maybe he wasn't a part of the group since he was dead.

"No signs of defensive wounds, no markings around his wrists or neck, no other damage to him than the gunshot wound."

Tim nodded. "Can someone get me some booties please?" he shouted, feeling like his nerves were going to jump out of his body at any moment.

"Coming," Ziva said from behind him, handing him two plastic shoe covers and taking out the camera to get pictures of his shoes.

Elly was joined by Greg, and he bent to look at the young man more closely.

"Shaggy hair. Scruffy beginnings of a beard. Wasn't even old enough to grow one properly yet." He shook his head and reached into the kid's pockets with a gloved hand. He found his wallet and flipped it open. "Samuel Kroger. Just turned 19. Lives, or at least did at one time, in Newark. He's a little ways from home."

"This is insane," Elly said quietly. "We've got children terrorists killing and torturing Marines and NSA agents."

"We don't know if the kids did all of this. Like we said earlier, they were probably under the control of Crow. He may be the knifeman."

Elly nodded, not convinced. He walked away from the young body and circled the crime scene, taking in the backside of the hanging man.

"Aw, hell no," he said, shaking his head.

"What?" both Tim and Greg asked. Even Ziva and Sommers stopped to look at him.

"Assholes left a message for us."

Greg got up to come around to look at the man's back as Elly read off the words, "They're mine now." Elly's eyes looked up to meet Tim's as Greg started snapping photos. "It's carved into his fucking back, McGee."

Tim nodded. "We know we're working with some really sick individuals, whether they're adults or children. Everyone stay alert. We don't know what kind of traps are set in here. They obviously wanted us to find this place. There could be something dangerous here."

Everyone nodded, and Ziva left McGee to grab Sommers and start a search of the building for any booby traps. Greg looked at the two chairs from his position behind the body and stared thoughtfully.

"Whatcha thinking?" Elly asked softly. Greg turned his head towards Elly though his eyes remained on the chairs.

"Remember what Ned said about how they might have tortured Piper to get to Davis?"

"Yeah?"

"I think they were doing that with this man. They were torturing him with the other two tied down to the chairs. Look at them." Elly and Tim looked at the chairs as closely as they could without getting into the blood. Tim noticed that there was blood all over one of them. It reflected in the florescent overhead lights.

"Piper was in that one," he pointed to the one on the right. "It's covered in blood from where they carved him up. So, Davis was in that one." He gestured with his head to the one on the left.

Greg and Elly both nodded. Tim shone his flashlight at the man's arm as he squinted, and the other two men looked at him curiously.

"What do you see?" Greg asked, starting to come around the blood pool to stand with Tim.

Tim's expression was thoughtful, his mouth hanging open as he put the pieces together. "He's got a tattoo on his inner arm. Can you tell what it is?"

Greg moved to a position Tim still couldn't as he wiped down his shoes and shone his flashlight on the arm. "It's a wolf or a dog with the words Semper Fi, I think."

"How much do you wanna bet this guy is Carmichael?" Elly asked crossing his arms across the puddle from them. The other two both nodded, looking grim.

"Torturing Piper wasn't enough heartache for Davis so they tortured his Marine buddy in front of him?" Greg asked, his hands on his hips as he looked back and forth between Tim and Elly.

"But didn't Carmichael give Davis up? Isn't he supposed to be one of the bad guys? Why did they torture him?" Elly posed.

"Why did they shoot a 19 year old kid?" Greg asked. "This Crow guy is jacked up."

Ziva and Sommers came to join them. "We did not see anything that appears to be a trap, but I suggest we remain vigilant."

"Alright folks. Let's get to work," Tim said, his eyes on the man they believed was Carmichael. He shook his head at his luck to get assigned such a messed-up case while both Gibbs and Tony were away, but finished wiping down his shoes enough to walk in them with booties on without slipping.

The rest of the team started in on fingerprinting whatever they could without going into the blood, as well as taking pictures of anything and everything while sketching. It didn't take long for Ducky and Jimmy to arrive.

"Oh, dear," Ducky said as he entered the building, causing everyone to glance up at him. They could all see Jimmy visibly swallow as his Adam's apple bobbed. They walked up to the scene and sat their things down. "Looks like this poor fellow has had a rather bad time of it."

"There's another body over here, Ducky," Greg called from next to Kroger. "Be forewarned, he's pretty young."

"How young?" Ducky asked as he came around the machinery to find the body.

"He's 19," Greg answered.

"Much too young to be involved in something so gruesome," Ducky said with a sideways glance at the youthful face of the man.

"Might have been what got him killed," Greg answered.

"How do you figure?" Jimmy asked, joining them.

"I have a feeling he started protesting the torture and got silenced permanently."

"Mr. Palmer, if you would, the liver probe."

"Yes, Dr. Mallard," Jimmy said, moving to get the device from the bag.

They worked on the younger man while Tim worked with the others to clear a path to the man chained up.

"How did they get him up there?" Elly asked.

Everyone turned to look around, and Ziva's eyes fell on a folding ladder. "Perhaps that?" she said, gesturing to it.

"Probably," Sommers said, surprising everyone as he moved towards it. Instead of bringing it to them though he broke out the fingerprinting kit and started dusting it. Tim and Ziva exchanged a look with a raised eyebrow that said they didn't expect that from him. They patiently waited while he took a few prints, then he folded up the kit and brought the ladder over to them after tucking away the kit in his bag.

Ducky joined them and they looked at the dangling man like a puzzle. "Would you like to examine him up there or down here, Ducky?" Tim asked.

"I'll begin up there, and then we'll take him down." They watched as he called the time of death as approximately 24-36 hours before. "I'll be able to get a better time for you once we get him home. Same as our young victim. I think it's fair to say that it was shortly before our previous victims were taken to their drop point."

"Ducky, can you please?" Tim asked, holding up his fingerprint scanner.

"Certainly," he said, holding the man's shriveling finger against the small device. It beeped that the scan was complete, and he handed it back to Tim.

McGee set the search parameters and hit go. It only took a minute for the results to come back that it was indeed Corporal Carmichael.

"It's him. If you all could continue in here, I'm going to call the director and update him. He should probably get the message to Staff Sergeant Melbourne that the women aren't safe."

"Do you want me to update Hadley?" Elly asked.

Tim thought for a moment. "No. Not yet." If Bishop wasn't willing to completely trust him anymore, then he wasn't either.

"Does anyone know where the poor lad's feet have run off to?" Ducky asked, not realizing his pun until it was too late. Jimmy stifled a chuckle, and everyone else looked at Ducky with slack jaws. "Oh, please do forgive my choice in expressions. You know what I meant though."

"No, Ducky," Ziva said, trying to shake off her shock at the thought that Ducky of all people would make such a heartless joke. "No one has seen them."

"Well, then. I do believe we have another mystery."

********WDYG?*********

Vance saw McGee's name on the caller ID before he heard the phone vibrate. He was anxious for some movement on this case. He was trying not to micromanage, but such a high-profile case landing in his peoples' laps as soon as they were left without their leadership was cringeworthy, to say the least. Homegrown terrorists being led by an unidentified NSA mole that had taken down a Marine and NSA Analyst. He couldn't have written a worse scenario to be dropped on McGee for his first time in charge without Gibbs to back him up. Without _either_ Gibbs to back him up. It was a nightmare.

"Vance," he answered, trying to sound stern but collected.

"Director," McGee answered. "I have good news and bad news."

"Okay?"

"We got Carmichael."

Vance squinted at nothing in particular while waiting for the "but".

"But?"

"He's dead."

"Of _course_ he is. What happened?"

"We searched one of the warehouses that work with a rare wood Abby found traces of on our victim's shoes. We found Carmichael chained to the ceiling, missing his feet. We also found another body. A nineteen year old man named Samuel Kroger. Carmichael had been tortured. Kroger had not. There was a message left for us."

"Which was?"

"They're mine now" was carved into Carmichael's back," he said, suppressing a sigh.

"You think he meant the women?" Vance asked, looking at the door, thinking he was about to make a trip to MTAC.

"I'm pretty sure. The room was set up with chairs aimed at Carmichael. We believe he was being tortured as a way to get to Davis and Piper. Make them talk or Carmichael suffered more."

"Sadistic bastard," Vance said. "I'll alert Melbourne."

"I'll be in touch if anything else happens. Otherwise we're heading back to the Yard."

"Come find me when you get here."

"Will do."

Vance hung up the phone and got to his feet. He went to the railing, looking down to find that Dorneget was sitting alone in the bullpen.

"Agent Dorneget," he shouted down. The younger agent's head snapped up to look at him. "With me."

"Yes, sir," he said, jumping up and shoving some papers in his desk before grabbing his notebook and heading for the stairs. Vance was waited for him at the top.

"Has McGee filled you in on what he's found?" he asked.

"No, sir?"

"Carmichael is dead, along with some kid. There was a message left for us."

"Uh oh."

"They're mine now."

"Damn," Ned whispered as he looked towards the MTAC door. "We're going in there?" he asked.

"Yes, we are," Vance said, turning to scan himself in. "And we're not coming out until we have answers."

"Right behind you, sir," Ned said, straightening his spine and feeling determination flood his body.

Vance stopped before crossing the threshold into the room and turned to look at Ned. "Don't pull any punches."

Ned set his jaw and nodded. _Game on._

********WDYG?********

Abby and Bishop were scanning through all of the photos that were on Piper's thumb drives and computer. There were thousands over the course of years' worth of trips. It was getting frustrating. They'd been looking for twenty minutes and Bishop already knew that they weren't going to get anywhere using the method they were trying.

"We need a way to narrow this down, Abby. What kind of programs do you have that could eliminate all of the photos that didn't have a face in them?"

Abby smiled at her. "I like the way you think! Let's use some facial recognition to narrow it down. What can you tell me about the way Devon looks?"

"African American male in his late 30's. Probably about 5' 10". When I saw him he was bald, clean shaven head with short, cropped beard. Muscular like he worked out, but not really body builder kind of muscular. Perfect smile."

"So, a total hottie?" Abby asked, smile never fading.

"Pretty much," Bishop said. "But a total hottie that could've turned on his partner, if he was indeed his partner."

"It must really suck to not be able to trust anyone you've trusted for years now. I mean, I've dealt with people on the team suddenly revealing that they've been working an undercover operation without me knowing for months, and that sucks. So, I totally get you there. When Tony was undercover I usually was able to sniff it out, or he told me so that I could help him with things, but it felt like the biggest betrayal when he fell in love undercover and didn't tell me. I mean, we tell each other everything!"

"Wait, Tony is Ned, Elly and Greg's boss, right?"

"Yeah," Abby said, looking from the computer screen to Bishop and back again as she programmed the software's search parameters.

"He fell in love with Jethro while undercover?"

"Oh! No. It's a very long story. Tony had always wanted Jethro. It's so weird to call him that. We just call him Gibbs. So, Tony had always been in love with Gibbs, but he didn't think he could ever have him. When he started falling for Jeanne, it was more like _settling_ , and when he had to choose between her and the team, he chose the team. For obvious reasons. He was in love with the boss man. And even _them_ revealing their relationship was kind of a shock to everyone. I mean, Tony had never told me that he was into guys, so that was a shock in and of itself, but- okay, not so much a shock, because he's like totally trendy and into designer clothes and stuff- but anyway. It's a long story. You should meet them if you get the chance. They're incredibly amazing, and you won't find a cuter couple."

"Are they cuter than Ned and Elly? Because they give Jake and I a run for our money."

"That is a pretty hard choice, but I'm still going to go with the Gibbses. Knowing their sad histories and how they finally came together gives it the power up over Ned and Elly, but I definitely know what you're talking about. If you think they're cute now, you should see them once the case is over. Actually, we're throwing the Gibbses a surprise post-wedding shower when they get home. You should come! They'd love you!"

Bishop was somewhat taken aback. She didn't know what to say to that kind of invitation. "Maybe?" she said. "Hopefully we know who the bad guys are by then and I'm able to get a good night's sleep."

"Oh, we'll know soon. I can feel it." Abby gestured with her hands in the air. "I know things seem scattered right now, but you can trust these guys to find the answers and put all the pieces together. They're like the masters of all puzzles. They won't give up on you."

Bishop gave Abby a genuine smile. "Thanks, Abby. I needed to hear that."

"Are you okay?" Abby asked, ignoring the computer now that it was running the search.

Bishop shrugged with one shoulder. "I think? I don't know. It's just that this is an awful situation, and I've lost my partner, my husband is hawking over me like he thinks I'm going to get snatched by NCIS forever, and yet… I can't help but feel like I'm finally doing something… right. Like working on this case is more my speed than analysis is." She shook her head and looked back at the screen in front of her. "Never mind. It's nothing. I'm just… stressed."

Abby blinked a couple of times. "Have you thought about becoming an agent?'

Bishop gave her that sad smile again. "I applied a long time ago for multiple agencies. I didn't get in anywhere. I was pigeonholed for the NSA. I could never figure out what I was doing wrong, or if it was because I'm so small that people thought I couldn't hold my own. Then I see Ziva, and I'm like, see! I could do it! It's just frustrating."

A plan started hatching in Abby's head. She knew Sommers was getting the boot soon, and she liked the idea of Bishop taking that spot. She was friendly and super smart. She was contemplating how to approach the topic when her phone chimed. She looked down to find the group chat window blinking and opened it up.

 _Tim: We found Carmichael. He's dead. His feet are missing. We also found the body of a 19 year old boy named Samuel Kroger from Newark NJ._

 _Elly: Carmichael had the words "They're Mine Now" carved into his back._

 _Ned: Just informed Melbourne in MTAC. The Director is pissed. He told me I'm not leaving the room until we have some answers. He's flooding the lines trying to get ahold of Director Spots. We're about to tear into Hadley._

Abby looked over at Bishop with a grimace, and then chewed her bottom lip. She looked back at her phone and joined the fray.

 _Abby: Bishop and I are using facial recognition to try to locate Devon in the photos we pulled from Mark's computer and USBs._

 _Greg: Who's Devon?_

 _Abby: Someone Bishop thinks might have been partnered with Mark for his Caribbean adventures._

 _Greg: Got it. We're coming back with two bodies and a ton of evidence. Get ready._

 _Elly: Hey Abby? Do you think you could put a pot of coffee on? I'm dying._

 _Abby: Sure thing! Anything for you guys!_

"What's going on?" Bishop asked. "That's not a good look. What did they find?"

Abby handed her phone to Bishop so she could read through the texts.

"Damn," she hissed when she read what they'd found. "Samuel Kroger?" She kept reading and her eyebrows rose when she saw that Vance was going to tear into Hadley. She wanted to be there, but she hadn't been invited. She handed the phone back to Abby with a grim expression.

"I'm going to put some coffee on. You want some?" Abby asked.

"Yes. God yes, please! You wouldn't have any snacks to go with it, would you?"

Abby held up a finger and retreated to her office. She came back with an extra-large box of Cracker Jacks and a bag of trail mix.

"You're just as amazing as everyone says, Abby! I haven't had Cracker Jacks in years." Abby handed the box to her with a grin. "Thank you!"

Bishop moved to the end of the counter and pulled her laptop out of her bag. She opened the box of caramel popcorn and started her research on who Samuel Kroger may be. Soon the smell of coffee was in the air and there was the soothing sound of both women clacking away on their keyboards to do their research, punctuated by some crunching.

Abby stopped for a minute and texted the group.

 _Abby: Did you really say that his feet are missing? Like, cut off, nowhere to be found, missing kinda missing?_

 _Elly: Yup._

 _Abby: Is there a BOLO out for two runaway feet?_

 _Greg: Heh, I see what you did there._

 _Jimmy: That's so bad it's hilarious!_

 _Elly: You should've heard Ducky slip up and make a bad pun earlier. He asked where the feet had run off to._

 _Abby: NO HE DIDN'T!_

 _Jimmy: Yes he did._

 _Ziva: I've alerted the LEOs. Everyone is on the lookout._

 _Elly: Why would they take the feet though?_

 _Greg: Trophies?_

 _Jimmy: Fetish?_

 _Ziva: Confirmation, most likely_

 _Abby: Why are we having this chat via text? Aren't you all together?_

 _Greg: Yeah, but McGee is on the phone so we're staying quiet._

 _Abby: Oh, okay. Who's he on the phone with?_

 _Elly: Fornell_

 _Abby: Is he having any luck getting us that information he was scrounging?_

 _Greg: Sounds like it, but maybe just chunks and pieces_

 _Jimmy: Is that another mutilated body pun?_

 _Greg: NO!_

 _Elly: There may be someone on the radar for this Crow business, but I can't hear everything._

 _Abby: Okay. We'll see you soon. Coffee is on in the lab._

 _Elly: You're amazing Abby! 3_

Abby put down her phone and went back to the search. She was tired, but this was what she lived for. 

********WDYG?********

Tony woke up to Jethro nuzzling his jaw in his morning doziness. They were wrapped around one another thoroughly, and Tony smiled into the sunlight coming through the curtains. It felt so good to be so close to Jethro, with the plush bed and pillows around them and not a care in the world. He hummed to himself then turned to plant a kiss on Jethro's temple.

"Mornin'" Jethro said huskily.

"Good morning," Tony whispered back. Jethro snuggled in even closer and Tony smiled even brighter, holding him tightly against him. "Do we have to get up?" he asked.

"Nope," Jethro said softly.

"Good," Tony said, closing his eyes to simply relish their closeness. He fell asleep again to the sounds of Jethro's even breathing in his ear.

********WDYG?********

Hadley came up on the screen, and he looked worn for the wear.

 _Good,_ Ned thought. _If we're not resting, he shouldn't be either._

"Good evening, gentlemen. Or is it technically morning yet?"

"Not 'til the sun rises," Vance said. "We need to talk."

"Conversations that begin with those words never go well," Hadley said with a sigh. "What's happened?"

"Another Marine is dead. We've located the site our men were tortured. A young man was found dead with them. A kid. He was only 19 years old."

"That's… well shit." Hadley rubbed his eyes, trying to get the exhaustion out.

"Yeah, it is. I need to know what your people are playing at. I can't get ahold of your director, and my people are over here chasing ghosts that I'm willing to bet are your people wearing sheets."

Hadley shook his head, then looked across the room. He got up from the line of sight of the camera, and then they heard the conference room door close. He held up a finger and watched a spot on the wall until a light came on. "Okay. We're locked down. What do you know?"

"No," Ned said, his voice like rough steel. "That's not how this goes. You tell us what _you_ know. The things we _should've_ known from the moment this investigation began."

Vance felt prickles of pride for the man standing next to him. Sometimes he had a hard time believing that he was the same man that stumbled his way up into the bullpen from the evidence lockers just a few months earlier. He reminded himself to thank Tony.

Hadley's expression was a little taken aback by Ned's tone, but Ned didn't care. He was tired, he was cranky, and he wanted this Crow bastard's head on a stake. It was coming between him and snuggles with his Elly. All niceties were out the window. Besides, the director had to play politics; he could get away with being a little gruffer. In this game of good cop/bad cop he was glad to take the bad cop role.

"We've known about Crow for a long time, but we didn't think much would ever come of him. The groups that he's been working with, The Children of the Prophet and Only, are both pretty disorganized. We didn't anticipate him having the power to organize their chaos so soon, but here we are. Both groups have gained ground in the past 24 hours. Only is out on the west coast, and in the past couple of days they've taken great pains to recruit. We're hearing reports of people literally being walked up to in the streets asking to convert and join their jihad. They're preparing for something, but we haven't figured out what."

"We're not seeing much about them through the message boards," Ned said, making sure not to look away from the screen at Vance and give away how much that news blindsided him.

"They're in a private chatroom using an app called Kik. It's kind of like the old AIM instant messenger. There's chatrooms and texting," Hadley explained, waving a hand in a mindless gesture as he did so.

"Yeah, I'm familiar with it. You can search for groups on there though. How are they getting away with being so open?"

"They simply don't care! They're reckless. And your Agent Critten told me about your theory that The Children of the Prophet are possibly actual children, and we went back over the analysis for the Only, and we think they may be, too. Same demographics. 16-24. Technologically immersed."

"Why didn't Bishop know about Only using Kik?" Ned asked.

"Mark knew, but Bishop's focus was specifically The Children on this assignment. There were other analysts who were working the Only route. Mark's job was to consolidate the information and he didn't feel the need to include them. Only didn't look like even a little threat until yesterday, and now we're tracking them down in the streets with the FBI. Haven't caught any of them yet, slippery bastards, but we're working on it."

"Mark knew about Only? I have a feeling there's a _lot_ more to Mark than you've been honest with us about." Ned tilted his head to the side as he looked at Hadley with as much accusation as he injected into his statement, which was as sarcastic as he could politically get away with.

Hadley shook his head in frustration. "Not because I didn't want to!" he practically yelled as he slammed his open palm on the table. He took a deep breath. "I've been trying to track down Director Spots to get the clearance to share what I know, but I can't get in touch with him."

"Are you saying that your director is _missing_?" Vance asked, his voice blatant in his disbelief at the possibility.

"Not missing. Just… entangled in the fallout of what's happening. God… I can't tell you this. I shouldn't tell you this. But I'm gonna tell you this, because I'm alone here, and quite frankly, I need help." Hadley looked up into the camera and shook his head, then began to slowly tell them the story. "Okay. Mark wasn't just a Senior Analyst. Before he came to the NSA, he was CIA. It's why he was chosen for this special project. He got out when he got married and found out his wife was pregnant. He wasn't with them for very long, just about five years. Those were his younger days.

"These days, he's an analyst most of the time, but he will go a few times a year to connect with informants undercover in various tropical paradises. Very high-level informants from other governments. He meets with them at some point during his trip, but the rest of the time he's simply another middle-aged guy that likes to take beach trips in flipflops and straw hats and come home sunburnt like a lobster."

Ned glanced at Vance with an unconvinced raised eyebrow, then dropped his bomb.

"Who is Devon in relationship to Mark?"

The look on Hadley's face was incredulous. "How much do you people know?!" he exclaimed in exasperation. "What has Bishop told you?! How much does _she_ know?!"

"We've all worked hard at trying to put the pieces together. Most of what you're saying we figured out together already, with the exception of what the beach trips were actually about. We knew that they weren't what they claimed to be. And we know that Devon is somehow involved. We think he's Mark's partner or handler."

Hadley scoffed, shaking his head. "Yeah, he is. He's CIA and he's Mark's handler when he goes on these trips. He arranges them."

"Is there a chance that he's Crow?" Vance asked, snatching the words out of Ned's mouth.

"It's _possible_ , but not likely."

"Why not?"

"He already had access to a lot of the information they would've tortured our men for. He wouldn't have needed to go to those kinds of lengths."

"Forgive me, but I'm not very fond of the CIA right now," Ned said. "He's going to have to prove his innocence to me."

Hadley shrugged. "The CIA has their purpose. They're coordinating an exodus of all of the people that Mark may have given up under torture, and the rendezvous is in Spain."

"Why Spain?" Ned asked, simply curious.

"The Director has a second home there."

Ned tossed his head to the side casually as he notated the information. "Doesn't mean someone from their team isn't involved."

"Yeah, but if they were, they'd just take out the target Mark was going to meet themselves. Make Mark disappear on the trip. Easy enough to do. Whoever it was wouldn't have dumped him on the banks of the Potomac just to rub it in our faces. They'd be discreet. Maybe even frame Mark for the murder."

"This comes to our hardest question yet," Vance said. Hadley took another deep sigh, he knew what was coming. "Who was Mark going to meet?"

Hadley nodded. "Milaj Hahmar, Director of the Iraqi National Investigative Service. They've worked together before, and she trusted Mark. Requested him specifically for this conversation. She's leading a project of a special force of female spies being trained within the INIS. She personally recruits young women who are shown to be driven and bright who have little to no family ties. They were going to meet to negotiate an exchange of sorts. Uninterrupted flow of communication in exchange for the CIA training twenty brand new recruits."

Ned played it cool and calm, not batting an eye at the news. He hoped that the Director didn't either. If Hadley didn't know about the group of women that Davis was involved with relocating, he wasn't going to let him in on it. He'd been hiding plenty that they should've known from the beginning. Not only did it cause them a headache to figure out, but Ned felt really irked that Hadley had kept Bishop out of the loop. He realized that he'd become protective over her in the short time he'd known her, and he tried not to growl to himself.

"Now that we have this information we can start looking at new angles into how it means our dead Marines are tied in. It would've been very helpful to know earlier," Ned said, getting in his dig.

"I couldn't tell you. I still shouldn't have told you, but we're not getting anywhere with the investigation. Everyone around here is a suspect, and they're terrified of being accused, not to mention they're all suspicious of each other. There's a traitor in our house, and we have no idea who it is."

"You should've told Bishop," Ned said. "She's in danger, and she had the right to know."

"I knew she'd be safe with you guys. Safer than she would be here. It's a witch hunt right now, and I needed her focused on this case. She's honestly out best hope at finding out who Crow is. We have high hopes in her, and for damn good reasons. Mark was eventually going to bring her on board to the project. He really wanted to bring her on this trip with him, but we wouldn't let him. It's never been about not trusting her, it's been about her not trusting us."

"Trust is earned," Ned said, his voice ringing cold and clear.

"Not sure what else we could've done," Hadley said.

"Keeping secrets and lying to her probably didn't help," Vance said, cocking his head a little to the side.

"I guess everything is out in the open now."

"Don't worry agent Hadley," Vance said, staring into the eyes of the man on the screen. "We're not going to reveal our source. We're trying to get information out of the FBI as well. It could've just as easily come from them."

"Well…" Hadley said, eyebrows rising. "Probably not, because they don't really know everything either."

Ned and Vance looked at each other and Ned rolled his eyes. "Can you send us the list of agents that you've narrowed down your internal investigation to? All of the potential Crows?"

"I'll send them through to Ellie's email."

"We'll be in touch, Hadley," Vance said.

"Agent Dorneget?" he said, stopping Ned's note taking. "Can you tell Bishop that I'm sorry I couldn't tell her earlier and have her call me?"

Ned nodded, but couldn't bring himself to say anything as he ground his teeth.

"Thank you. And thank you both for taking her under your wing on this and keeping her safe."

"She's not only intelligent, but capable of handling herself. I think you underestimate her. She's keeping herself safe." Ned knew this was getting too personal and cut it off. "We'll be in touch if we have any further questions."

He took a deep breath once the screen had turned dark again, and then looked at Vance.

"This Bishop seems to be making a big impression on people around here," Vance said. "Between what I've heard from McGee and Critten, and now watching you defend her, vehemently I might add, I feel like I'm missing out on not getting to know her."

Ned nodded. "You should. She's pretty kickass."

Vance smiled and chuckled.

"We got what we needed." Ned was not only ready for what came next, but eager for it.

"Yeah, we did. How much do you want to bet that Milaj Hahmar's newest recruits are the women from the school that Melbourne's unit transferred?"

"I think we need to wake Melbourne up again," Ned said, a bit of evil glee to his voice at rousing the man who had been hiding critical information from them this whole time.

"I don't think he'll mind, do you?"

"Nope," Ned said. "Doug, can you please get Staff Sergeant Melbourne back on screen for us?"

"Just a moment," the older man said dozily, seeming to be completely unfazed by the information he was just privy to.

"You ready?" Vance asked.

Ned looked at him with an emphatic nod. "Oh, yeah."

********WDYG?********

Jethro woke up with a gasp. His hips jutted up off the bed, and he fell back down onto the pillows with a moan as Tony's warm mouth woke more than his body, but his every sense. "Damn…" he groaned.

Tony palmed Jethro's balls with his hand as he took him deep in his throat and felt pride at the sounds doing so elicited from his husband. He knew Jethro loved to be woken up like this, but he was such a morning person that Tony never woke up first, so it rarely happened. He was thrilled to be able to start the first full day of their honeymoon doing something special.

Jethro's fingers entwined themselves in Tony's hair, which allowed him to feel even more immersed in the sensation of the up and down push and pull Tony's lips and tongue were doing along his shaft. His hazy eyes opened halfway to watch Tony's eager bob and he chewed his lip as he thought about how his lover was using the opportunity to simply pleasure him, not himself. He'd make up for it later, obviously, but for the moment it was all about him and he felt enthralled in that gift.

He held off for as long as he could. Tony's technique was masterful though, and with being surprised from sleep he didn't have quite the wherewithal to make it last. He knew there would be plenty of other opportunities throughout the week, if not the day, so when he felt his orgasm descending on him he arched his back and Tony took him all the way to swallow the spurts of cum offered him. Their eyes met at one point and Jethro felt himself pulse again, making Tony grin around him.

Once Tony had licked Jethro clean, he crawled up to his husband's side, taking his limp hand in his as he bent over him to kiss him. Jethro kissed him back hungrily, eager to taste himself on Tony as if a marking of his territory. _He's mine, world. You can't have him. All mine._

They eventually pulled back and Tony smiled down on him. "Good morning," he said softly. "For real this time."

"That makes it a _very_ good morning," Jethro said with a smirk.

"I never get to do that! You always wake up before me. Or…"

"Or Amira wakes up before either of us."

"Exactly," Tony said, his expression saying enough for the both of them. "It's evil. The mornings we need her to wake up, she won't. The mornings we don't want her to wake up, she's up at the crack of dawn."

"Yeah, but you love watching cartoons with her on Saturday mornings while I cook breakfast," Jethro said with a smirk.

"Okay," Tony said, "That may be true, but that's not the point. The point it, morning wood head isn't usually an option."

"What can I do for you?" Jethro asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You can make it up to me later. I want to get to the bakery before all the good stuff is gone! It's after 10."

Jethro chuckled and reached up to pull Tony's head down for another kiss. It was sweet, and tender, and full of joyful love. They pulled part of the way back and looked into each other's eyes. Tony's forehead fell against Jethro's and they stayed like that for a moment.

"I don't think I could be any happier right now," Tony said softly.

"Me too."

Tony lowered himself so that he was laying halfway on top of Jethro. He wrapped his arms around him, and Jethro pulled Tony close and held him back. "We can do crostata tomorrow. I just want to stay like this until we want to get up. Nothing rushing us, no expectations. Just me, you, and this feeling."

"I am perfectly happy with that," Jethro said, kissing Tony's head and then resting his chin against it as they held each other in the quiet morning bliss.


	8. Chapter 8

_I wanted to warn you that things are going to get dark in the next couple of chapters. This Crow dude is a really sick bastard. If you stomached my old story Sleepwalker, you should be able to stomach this, but… maybe not. it's going to be explicit and the darkest of dark. The research I did made me ill. We get to see a tiny bit of Crow at the end of this chapter, and you'll get a small taste for his proclivities. A future chapter will have a bypass option though because I understand that not everyone can stomach that kind of reading. I'll explain when the time comes. Until then, I hope you enjoy!_

 **Chapter Eight**

Bishop and Abby were sitting quietly in the lab when a sudden bustle of noise started drifting in from down the hall. They both smiled at each other, anxious to see the rest of the team again. They were eager to get moving on the case and having them all together again to put their brains into the process was just what they needed.

"Abby!" Elly exclaimed as they came into the room. "I can smell coffee! You beautiful goddess!"

She giggled as she smiled at him, and Bishop found herself grinning at the camaraderie that this team had.

Everyone began dropping things on the evidence table and lining up behind Elly to pour themselves a paper cup of coffee. Sugar and creamer were dumped in some cups and soon they all stood around stirring and sipping. Elly's eyes closed at the taste of the drink that he knew would bring him the much-needed energy boost.

"What have you found out?" Ziva asked, coming to look over Abby's shoulder at the computer.

"Well, Devon isn't in any of the photos."

"But we know a little more about Kroger," Bishop said, picking up her own coffee without realizing her need to mimic the team around her.

"What do you got?" Tim asked, coming to look over Bishop's shoulder.

"He's a freshman at NYU," she said. "I would say that he's studying engineering, but he's failing out."

Tim nodded as he took a drink of his coffee.

"He's been in some trouble," Abby said, nodding at Bishop to continue.

"Yeah. He's got a fairly fresh prior," she said, looking around at the group to find them all staring at her, ready to drink in whatever she told them. "He was caught setting someone's car on fire."

"How'd he do that?" Elly asked.

"He smashed in the window with a brick and then tossed in an incendiary using a Christmas ornament full of a mixture of gasoline and Styrofoam."

"Odd combination," Greg said, leaning against the evidence table.

"Not really," Abby said. "It's widely known on the internet as a crude homemade napalm. I've never had to test the compound before, but it could be kind of fun."

"You just want to blow stuff up," Elly said with a chuckle.

"Who, me?!" Abby asked, the picture of innocence.

Tim shook his head, but he was smiling, and Abby was glad to see it. This case had him stretched quite thin. It took a lot to get under Tim's skin, and this definitely was.

"What did he give as his reason for doing it?" Greg asked.

"He said it was a dare," Bishop said.

"Doesn't sound like a dare to me," Greg returned. "Sounds like a test run, or even an initiation rite."

"Yeah, that's what we were thinking," Bishop said before popping some Cracker Jacks into her mouth.

Ziva noticed out of the side of her peripheral that Sommers was hanging off to the side, watching them casually but not participating in the discussion. She almost felt sorry for him. He looked like he wanted to say something on a couple of occasions, but kept opening his mouth and closing it again. After the third or fourth time, she looked directly at him and nudged her head to indicate he should come closer to the group. He gave her a one shoulder shrug, and she nudged her head towards them again. Sommers sighed and took a few steps towards them until he was standing at the end of the table.

There was a brief moment where no one was speaking, and Ziva nodded at him. He opened his mouth and almost stuttered as he started talking.

"I've seen it before," he said. Everyone turned to look at him, waiting. "My brother is EOD for the Navy."

The room was silent. He'd never mentioned his family before. "Oh," Abby said. "He's shown you this before?"

"He was obsessed with this kind of stuff as a teen. Had a chemistry set, the whole nine yards. And my dad encouraged it. He was Army and wanted… well he would experiment on this kind of stuff with him, just in really small batches of course. They'd figure out how to make things, and then figure out how to unmake them, or extinguish them. Couple of pyros, really."

"So how does it burn?" Elly asked.

"It burns hot. Very hot. Like _2000_ degrees hot. And it's sticky, so when the heat would build up in that little ornament, depending on the type of course, it would've exploded fairly quickly, and the gelatinous goo would spray, or splatter at least, and it's damn near impossible to put out. Styrofoam is polystyrene, which is why it burns so hot, but slow. And there's a way where you mix in just a little Vaseline or citronella, soak cotton balls with it, and use them as firestarters on camping trips."

"Good to know," Ziva said, giving him a slightly encouraging smile. She started wondering if there was more to Sommers. She'd never seen him lack confidence, always going for gloriously arrogant instead, but at the mention of his family he seemed uncomfortable. As she thought about it, it echoed of when she first met Tony. Tony however wasn't petulant like Sommers. She decided to prod at that later.

"Are there any other cases of people setting cars on fire in New York?" Tim asked. "Maybe there were others given the same task."

"I looked," Bishop said. "Though there were a few things that jumped out at me as possible initiation rites, none of them involved this kind of incendiary."

"What other things jumped out at you," Greg asked.

"Well, there's all sorts of things. It's New York. There's plenty of gang initiation associated crimes. The ones that I'm feeling caught up on are someone pouring gasoline around the perimeter of a church and lighting it on fire. Thankfully it was a stone church and there wasn't much damage. And there was an odd incident where a tree was set on fire in Central Park. They said it had been sprayed down with a chemical compound, but it burned so fast that the tree didn't take much harm."

"Sounds like they were testing a chemical out, but it burned too quickly. Did they say what the chemical was?" Abby asked.

"No, and the FBI took over the investigation."

"Oh, we can get that easily enough," Abby said, turning to her computer. "Can I have the date of the incident?"

"You've got access to the FBI's files?" Bishop asked.

"We have a channel in right now because we're working on uploading their information into our cold case database," Elly explained. "It's only the basic style cases that we can get to. Anything sensitive is still blocked. They have these different tiers of sensitivity within their own system. Kind of like classifications, but not as strict."

"Hmmm," Bishop said, shrugging a shoulder. "It was this past December 1st."

A moment later and Abby pulled up the file. "Got it. Let's see…" She browsed it for a moment and then brought up something on the screen. "Looks like a butyl based fluid. Most of it burned before it could be examined, but they found some on the grass below the tree."

"Like a rocket fuel?" Tim asked.

"Could be?" Abby said.

"When was the date of the car fire?" Greg asked.

"December 19th."

"Looks like they tried one fluid, and it failed. Then they tried another and were caught."

"Why didn't Kroger get put in jail?" Elly asked.

"He was arrested, but they let him out on bail. He's not a priority offender, so he's awaiting a court date." Bishop sighed.

"He's a possible terrorist, but he's not a priority offender?" Sommers rolled his eyes and then looked at Ziva, who shrugged back.

"He's not from New York originally," Bishop said. "He's from Maine. He had a spotless record before this arrest."

"What do you know about his childhood?" Greg asked.

"Not much yet," Bishop said. "He seems to come from the standard nuclear family though."

Greg shrugged and took a deep swallow from his coffee, which kicked off a chain reaction of half of the group doing the same.

There was a sudden flurry of chimes and ticks as everyone but Sommers and Bishop got a text message. They all pulled their phones out to look at it.

"That's the call," Tim said. "Director wants all of us in the conference room."

"I will get started on all of this evidence," Abby said, looking at the boxes lined up on the bright metal table.

"Find us something good," Tim said, kissing her temple as he walked by and making her grin.

Bishop saw and smiled, then picked up her coffee and computer. "Thanks for the Cracker Jacks, Abby."

"You're welcome!" Abby said. "Come visit again soon!"

A couple of moments later and Tim, Bishop, Greg, Elly and Sommers were all squeezed into the lift. The only person who had any energy left to climb the stairs was Ziva. They got to the bullpen at the same time though. They spread out to drop their stuff on their desks and then wandered up the steps to the conference room. Ned and the Director were already sitting in there, both taking notes.

Tim realized there was an introduction to be made. "Director Vance, I'd like you to meet Ellie Bishop, the analyst from the NSA we've been working with."

The Director got to his feet, reaching out to shake her hand. "You've really shaken things up around here," he said with a smirk.

"Ummm…" Bishop looked at the group next to her and then back to Vance. "Thank you, sir. I think."

Vance chuckled slightly, but his smile put her at ease.

"You've got amazing people. It's been an honor to work with them," she said with a small smile for him.

"They're a hell of a bunch," Vance said, gesturing for her to take a seat next to him. The rest of the group found places to sit as well and Vance began.

"We've had an interesting hour. Wanted to fill you all in." Vance was impressed to see the rapt attention of everyone at the table despite how exhausted they all looked. "We've gotten a lot of information from NSA Hadley and Staff Sergeant Melbourne."

"We can use it," Elly said with a shake of his head.

Vance spent the next ten minutes giving them the rundown of everything they'd found out. Ned had gotten to his feet and started drawing it out on the whiteboard like a roadmap or flowchart. Elly watched him closely, taking in the way his shoulders were squared and confident, and he realized he was witnessing Encyclopedia Ned right now. It reminded him of one night before they were dating when Ned had turned over the placemats at dinner and started drawing out the plans for the current operation. He liked having the visual. The information on the whiteboard was good, too.

"To summarize," Bishop said, looking at the whiteboard when they were all finished sharing their information. "Davis knew about the location of 20 or so women that the INIS was going to have the CIA train to be undercover spies. Mark may have known the location and was going to meet with an INIS bigwig to arrange their training. Carmichael is somehow involved, but other than being deployed with Davis we don't know for sure how. Devon is Mark's handler and is in Spain right now with my director operating a safehouse of sorts for all of the people Mark has ever worked with on this CIA project. Crow is a terrorist mole in the NSA and has gathered together two groups of kids on each coast to terrorize people. One of those groups has helped torture and murder Davis, Carmichael, and Mark, and killed one of their own."

"I think that sums it up," Ned said with a nod.

"We now have _half_ of the motive," Ziva said, thinking it through.

"Crow was trying to get the location of the 20 women. But why? What's in it for him?" Greg pondered aloud.

"Is he a true believer, or is he being bought?" Bishop asked.

"Or is it blackmail of a sort?" Tim asked. "They've resorted to torture. I wouldn't put blackmail past them."

"The language on the message boards that Crow uses is very… _persuasive_ ," Ned said, the room looking up to him where he was standing in front of them. "But it's almost like a used car salesman kind of approach. He's selling the idea to the group, the jihad."

Bishop looked skeptical. "Yeah, but the extent he knows radical Islam is… well it's obvious that he's maybe read the Quran or has a copy of it he refers to, because he quotes it, but its' not polished."

Ned nodded. "It's like he's a convert himself, or an outsider posing."

"Does it matter?" Elly asked.

Greg turned to him. "If he's a true jihadist, nothing is off limits. If he's in it for the money, there's a limit. A value to what he's getting. If I told you that cutting off your pinky finger will earn you ten million dollars, you may consider it. If I tell you to cut off Ned's arm, you wouldn't. There's limits when it comes to money. When it comes to radicalized, extremist religious views, there usually isn't. Everyone has different value amounts on actions. Combining the two though has a lot of dangerous potential. I don't think we should rule it out. Take the Brand and Mortaire situation we dealt with in the spring. They weren't paid very much, but they also had racist ideals that sweetened the pot for them. Or maybe the other way around." Greg turned back towards the whiteboard with a small shrug once he saw Elly nod his understanding.

Tim looked at nothing in particular as he talked. "The bodies were left on the river banks where we would eventually find them. Carmichael's body was obviously left as a message. Kroger looks like he just got in the way. I want to know what the message is going to be with the feet."

"Are they a message or a clue?" Ziva asked.

"I'm not sure what the clue would be," Elly said. "I mean, it's a couple of feet. Unless that's meant to be a measure of distance, which I know is only something my deliriously sleep deprived brain is thinking up, then I don't get it."

"Did you recover his shoes?" Ned asked.

"No," Tim answered. "I've just got a bad feeling that it means the killing isn't over."

There was a moment of silence at that exhausting and sobering thought.

Greg looked around the group, trying to focus on the objectives. "Okay, so now we know what they're after, and that's being handled by Spots. And the NSA and FBI are tackling this Only group. So that leaves us with trying to pinpoint where The Children of the Prophet are and who Crow is."

"Bishop should have an email from Hadley with a list of NSA agents that are potentially Crow," Ned said. "We should probably start there."

"And I should be getting copies of the discs from the marina's video footage today to begin scanning it for the abduction of Sergeant Davis," Ziva said.

"We need to take turns getting a few hours of sleep," Tim said. "We're going to need it when we locate these people."

"Agreed," Vance said. "Why don't you split up. Take five hours each. Run home, shower, nap, eat and come back. Then the next group goes."

"I'd rather stay and start working through the list," Bishop said.

"Abby has a futon in her back office," Tim suggested. "You should at least catch an hour or two. That's a lot of research for a muddled brain to take on. You can't make any mistakes. This is treason we're talking about. You need to have a clear head for that."

Bishop nodded. "I can agree to that."

"Do you need Dorneget for a while, Director?" Tim asked.

"No. We have a meeting in MTAC at 1400 with Director Spots. I want him there. Send him in the first wave. I'll need his head in the game."

"Dorney, Ziva and Sommers. Go home. It's going on 0800. Be back at 1300. We'll regroup, pass on our info, and then switch out."

Ned looked at Elly, then at Tim, and then back at Elly. Ziva and Sommers got up to leave, and Elly got up, too. He looked at Tim, "Just gonna…" he gestured to Ned, and Tim nodded.

"Bishop, can I talk to you a minute?" Ned asked, quietly.

"Yeah," she said, getting up to step out as well, feeling like the meeting was dismissed. The five of them left, and it left Vance, McGee and Parke in the room.

"What else?" Vance asked, noticing that McGee was waiting for folks to leave.

"Should I leave?" Parke asked.

"You can stay if you'd like," McGee said. "You may be able to give me some advice."

Parke nodded, giving Tim his full attention.

"Sommers ran off earlier," Tim started, looking at Vance with a forlorn expression. "I don't know where he went. I texted him to figure out where he was, and he said something about how he wasn't going to be on the team much longer, to which I found out meant that he'd said something inappropriate to Critten, which caused Dorney to snap at him and say something about how he wasn't going to be around much longer. He went AWOL for a while, missed our briefing before we left for the warehouse. It took me threatening going directly to you to get him to meet us there. I don't know what to do with him. I feel like I'm babysitting him."

Vance sighed and nodded. "Is he getting in the way of the investigation?"

"When he's _present_ he's doing his work, but he keeps ticking people off with his snide comments. He's toxic."

"Agent Parke? Any observations?" Vance asked.

"Yeah, actually. He's been a total ass. He has. But then in Abby's lab just now downstairs he was acting… different. Cautious. Maybe he needed the wakeup call?"

Vance nodded. "When he gets back, pull him aside. Tell him that you talked to me about his stunt and that I'm not happy and will be taking it up with him after the case. See if that changes his tune. If he settles down, great. If he continues to be a problem, then I'll make sure he's escorted off the property. This is too big of a case to deal with a problem child."

Tim sighed in relief, getting to his feet. "Thank you. I'm going to go check on Bishop and her list. See what damage I can do there. It will be nice to be behind a computer for a little while and do something productive."

That left Vance and Parke. Vance looked over at him. "How's he doing?" he asked once the door was shut.

"He's leading fine, but he's on edge. This case has him flustered. I don't blame him though. If my first case as a leader was hunting down a treasonous double agent in the NSA that tortures people and recruits kids I'd be a basketcase. He's doing much better than basketcase. I'd say he's snippy, but driven. And he seems out of his comfort zone, but in that kind of way that makes you grow. He's fine. Getting some research under his belt will calm things down for him. Help him focus on what his strengths are."

"And the others?"

"Sommers is the only one that's had a problem following his leadership. Actually, I think everyone has stepped up and taken full reins on their… specialties. I'm seeing Ned really get into the profiling of this Crow asshole, Elly is confidently but cautiously working with Bishop and Hadley, and both are acting more professional than usual. I haven't gotten a chance to work much with Ziva and Sommers, but she seems to be almost taking him under her wing.

"At first, I kind of thought that Tim was pawning him off on Ziva, but I don't think so. Ziva seems to know how to handle Sommers best, which is really strange because he's such a misogynistic jerk. She was encouraging him to work with us when we were debriefing in the lab just before. It was subtle, but I saw it. And Sommers surprised us all by talking about his family connections to EOD and his knowledge of explosive materials."

"If I remember correctly he has a brother in the Navy and his dad is a veteran as well."

"Yeah, he was Army. It's interesting. One minute he's acting like he hates us all, and the next he's panicking because he's going to be kicked out."

"I appreciate you keeping me up to date on everyone. Without the Gibbses I haven no way to really gauge how things are going without getting too in the weeds, and I can't do that to McGee."

"Definitely," Parke said. "McGee is nervous enough about leading this ragtag group. That will destroy his confidence before it's built. There's some powerful personalities here. I'll try to steer them in the right directions if they start trying to topple the tower."

"Are you sure you're okay with doing this?" Vance asked. "I don't want you to feel like you're betraying your team's loyalty by reporting this kind of thing to me. I know you all value that loyalty."

"This is fine. I wouldn't hesitate to let you know if I was uncomfortable with it. If it was a day to day kind of thing, it wouldn't be happening. But for this week, with the GIbbses gone, I'm fine with it."

"Good to know," Vance said, raising an eyebrow at the candidness of his agent. He had come to respect that about his people. If they were brutally honest with him he felt he could trust them more. He also respected that Parke wouldn't have been willing to do this every day. That would've made him uncomfortable. He felt bad for asking him to spy on his own team as is, but he was honest about not wanting to interfere with McGee's chance to take on a leadership role. He knew that until the young agent had done so he wasn't going to grow into those shoes. He needed him to develop those skills.

He got to his feet and Parke didn't. "You coming?"

"No, I'm going to call Tiffany really quick and update her on where things stand. It's about 8:30. She's usually thrown up a couple of times by now. I just gotta get the courage to hit the talk button."

"Pregnancy hormones?" Vance asked sympathetically.

"Oh… you have no idea. We call her the Prego Monster."

"Jackie was a nightmare the first trimester with each of our kids. It calmed down once the morning sickness stopped."

"Hers did stop. But we got some news on Friday that has me worried. And she's supposed to be on bedrest, and I've had to leave her home alone. I just hate this."

Vance sat back down giving his agent his full attention. "What was the news?"

Parke sighed. "The baby is turned in a weird way, so they're watching it closely. There's a fifty-fifty chance right now that she'll end up needing a C-section. There's still plenty of time for her to move, so we're not too worried about that. But Tiff has developed diabetes suddenly, and her blood pressure is through the friggin' roof and I… I don't know what I can do to help her other than be there with her. And I'm here, chasing down murderous asshole terrorists instead of being home to keep her calm."

"A lot of women develop diabetes when they're pregnant. Jackie's best girlfriend was attached to a bottle of orange juice through her entire pregnancy. It was like her sugar was never high enough."

Parke nodded and twirled his phone on the table. "Yeah. I know. And the psychologist in me knows the hormonal issues that cause her to say the things she says and do the things she does, but it's not making it any easier."

"She taking digs at you?"

"That's putting it lightly," Parke said, a sardonic grin on his face as he nodded, unable to meet Vance's eyes. "One minute it's the emotional equivalent to Elly or Ziva giving me a karate kick below the belt, the next she's bawling her eyes out as she realizes how horrible she just was to me and begging my forgiveness."

Vance cringed. Jackie had been hard to live with, but it never got personal like it sounded Parke was getting. "You know better than I do that pregnancy hormones are no excuse for verbal abuse," he said calmly.

"I know," Parke said with a sigh. "And we've talked extensively about it. It's getting better. She's catching herself more. But that's just it- she's catching herself. She's thinking these things about me, she's just not saying them. I can tell you this much- we won't be having any more kids because I can't go through this again. I'm getting myself snipped. We can adopt from here on out. I've always wanted to do that anyway."

"This sounds like more than pregnancy hormones," Vance said.

"Her past is just as disastrous as mine, if not worse. We have a rule though that I won't shrink her. I'm her husband, not her therapist."

"Smart rule."

"Yeah. All I can do is love her and talk to her about how I feel. It's up to her to do the rest."

Vance nodded. "Go ahead and call her. I'll let McGee know you need some time." Parke gave Vance a sad smile of thanks and watched him leave. He stared at the phone for a long minute, willing himself to press the talk button. He didn't know what he was going to find on the other end of the line. Was it the Prego Monster? Was it his wife needing him home to help her? Was it going to be okay? He took a deep breath and finally dialed the phone. Waiting wouldn't make things magically better.

********WDYG?********

Ned led Bishop to the end of the hallway by the elevator to talk to her semi-privately.

"What's up?" she asked.

"Hadley asked that I pass on a message to you."

"Oh?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"He asked that you call him, and he said that he's sorry that he didn't tell you everything sooner."

"He should've thought about that before," she said defensively, but with a hushed tone. "He's kept information from me like I'm a suspect, Ned! I trusted him! I thought he trusted me! Then, no offense, but he opens up to _you and Director Vance_ instead? No. I'm not accepting his apology. He's going to have to regain my trust."

"Not to defend him, because you look pretty mad right now, and I'd hate to defend him and have you… I don't know… hit me or something, but he was really distraught. He's been trying to get in touch with your director to get clearance to tell us, and you, this stuff, and finally he caved in MTAC and just gave it up. He wasn't cleared to tell us what he just told us. He said the only reason why he was telling us was because he's up shit creek without a paddle, and everyone at the NSA has turned on each other."

Bishop looked at the ceiling for a moment with a huffy sigh, then looked back at Ned.

"And he said that he wanted you here with us because he thinks you're the best shot at finding this creep and if you were there you'd be wrapped up in the drama."

Bishop looked down the hallway to where Elly was patiently waiting out the conversation. "He's still going to have to make it up to me."

"Call him though, if for no other reason than he may have other things he's only willing to tell you that he wasn't willing to tell us in MTAC."

"Fine," she finally conceded, and then turned to walk back over to the stairs that would take her down to the bullpen.

Elly smiled tentatively at her as they passed each other. He strolled up to Ned, hands holding their opposite elbows as he gave the other man a shy smile. "So much for snuggles," he said quietly.

"Damn McGee," Ned pouted.

Elly laughed. "More like damn terrorist prick."

"Okay, yeah, but still. That dumbass better be ready for me to kick his ass when I find him, because he's standing in the way between me and snuggles with my fiancé."

"I'd like to watch that," Elly said, trying not to step in closer to Ned. Ned smirked and turned towards the elevator and pressed the button. The door opened immediately for them, having last shuffled someone up to that floor. They stepped in, but no buttons were pushed.

"Come here," Ned said as the doors shut. Elly stepped forward into his embrace, and they breathed each other in for a long moment. "I need to go get some sleep."

"I wish I could go with you. I'm not really cool with this whole 'ships passing in the night' crap we've got going on."

"Me neither, but it's just today. We'll catch this guy, get the truth out of him, and then round up his brats and sleep for hours wrapped in each other's arms."

Elly pulled back, his arms still around Ned's chest. "And somewhere in there, amazing sex."

"Pssshft!" Ned scoffed. "Duh!"

Elly laughed, which made Ned laugh, and they shared a quick kiss. "Go get some sleep, sexy," Elly said, slipping out of the embrace but holding Ned's hand as he pushed the button for the next floor down.

They regretfully let go of one another's hands as they stepped off the elevator and into the bullpen.

Elly realized that Greg wasn't in the bullpen when he got there, and after a quick glance up at the catwalk he saw Tim coming from the conference room. Greg wasn't with him. He glanced around and then decided he must've been in the head. Ned smiled at him as he passed his desk with his pack.

"Love you," he said quietly.

"I love you, too," Elly said. "Sleep well."

"Good luck," he returned, then disappeared from view.

"I may have something here," Ziva announced loudly enough for both Elly and Tim to hear. Elly got up and made his way to the MCRT's side of the bullpen.

"Whatcha got?" he asked, leaning back against Gibbs' desk to stare at the plasma.

Tim got up to join them as Ziva beamed a photo at the screen. "I was checking my email before I left and found this. Frank at the marina sent me this photo. He pulled it from the video from two Fridays ago. You can only see the faces of these two young men, but Frank says that they tased Davis, and then dragged him into this van."

"There's like five kids here," Elly said.

"Well, they obviously knew what they were up against. Tasing a marine to get him to cooperate is actually pretty smart unfortunately. They don't have to get within a fist swing's proximity until he's compliant." Tim pointed out the two kids whose faces could be made out. The security camera was surprisingly high quality. "Neither of those kids are Kroger."

"No, but this one here looks like it might be from behind. You can see the blonde hair poking out from under the hat. He seems like the right build," Elly said, pointing to a young man in the bottom left of the photo.

"Send this to me," Tim said. "I'll add it to the BOLO. You need to go home and rest."

"Yes, I do. I just wanted to know what was going to be the outcome of your conversation with Vance about Sommers first."

Tim nodded. "He stays, but one more screw up, one more reason to make me want to strangle him, and he's gone for good."

Ziva nodded. "Understood." She turned around and sent Tim the photo before locking down her computer and gathering her belongings.

She made her way to the garage slowly. She had a few hours to breathe, and she was in no rush. Dion would already be awake when she got home, and probably getting dressed to go to the restaurant. She wouldn't be able to sleep until he left.

As she made her way to her car she noticed that Sommer's car was a row from hers. She wasn't sure why she did it, but she went up to it and tapped at the window before opening the passenger side door and getting in. Sommers lifted his head from his arms that were wrapped around the steering wheel. He looked utterly exhausted.

"You've got one chance," she said calmly. "Vance has decided to give you one more chance to prove that you can be a valuable part of this team, or you're gone for good."

Sommers shook his head and looked out the driver's side window, then let his head collapse back onto the seat rest. He sighed.

"I don't want to do this," he said. "I never wanted to do this. This isn't what I wanted to do with my life. It's what dad wanted though, and I wanted to make him proud. He was so proud of Aaron, at least when he got over the initial shock that he was joining the Navy instead of the Army. But he was proud. I'd always been the screw up. Could never get the trophies and accolades that Aaron got. Wasn't the quarterback, or the homecoming king, or Mr. America." His chest popped with a scoff. "Heh. I thought I could do this. For him. But I can't." He turned and looked at Ziva. "I didn't want to be an agent. I wanted to be in forensics. When I told my dad I was going into criminal justice though, he thought it meant I was going to be a cop. And suddenly… he was proud of me. Finally. He…"

Sommers shook his head. "I'm not a cop. I'm not an agent. Can I do it? Sure. But my heart isn't in it. And my head sure isn't in it. But I thought I could make him proud of me finally. So, I changed my course load, and I focused on investigations instead of forensics. And it's interesting, it is, but it's not… me."

Ziva thought of the precision and care Sommers had used to take the fingerprints off of Davis' Mustang, and again with the stepladder at the warehouse. She thought about him finally opening up the least bit about his family and showing his knowledge of explosives in Abby's lab. It made sense.

"I should be proud. My dad is. His son is not only a cop, but a federal agent. I've tried to be what he wants me to be for so long now that I don't even know myself. I hate who I've become. And I have no idea why I'm telling you all of this."

Ziva thought for a long moment. "My own father is the head of Israeli Intelligence, Mossad. I have been raised my entire life to be a merciless spy. And I fulfilled my duty for a long time. There were limits though. A time came where I had to choose for myself what I was willing to do, who I was willing to be, and where my… heart… belonged."

Sommers looked at her with wide eyes, and Ziva's fingers found the Star of David hanging from around her neck. "My place was here. With these people. They are good people, and they believe in what they are doing. They trust each other, and they rely on one another, and they give each other the opportunity to fulfill their truest self. And they offered that to me.

"We all use our skills to the best of our ability. We bring out the best in each other. If you give them the chance, and show your interests and skills, they will help them flourish. But that does not mean that you are going to do what you love all the time. We all do things we do not enjoy. What you need to decide is how much you are willing to open up to them. How much will you let them see? Because what you have shown us so far has not been pleasant. Your attitude has been reprehensible. You're arrogant, self-absorbed, rude-"

"Well don't hold back on my account! Damn!" Sommers said with a dark chuckle, shaking his head.

"I won't hold back. I am your partner. It is my job to guide you, direct you, teach you, and make you a part of this team, and your attitude has made that impossible. If you do not want to be here, then go. But if you do want to be here, if you want the chance to be a great investigator, or to find a way to prove yourself worthy enough to be a part of the forensics team, then you need to stop being such a dick."

"Wow, did you really just call me a dick?" Sommers asked.

"Yes, because there is no _nice_ way to put how you have treated everyone in this office, because you have been the opposite of nice. You are not above any of us, but you walk around here like we owe you something. You complain about every task set before you as if though you are better than it and shouldn't have to do it. You not only make no attempts to be a part of this team, but you directly insult the people around you who hold your future in their hands. Like it or not, you are at the bottom here and it is going to take earning respect before you make it even a single rung up."

"What do I do?" he asked quietly, staring forward out of the windshield.

"You make a decision. You either admit that this isn't for you, and you leave. Maybe go back to school and continue your education in forensics. Go do what you really wanted to do, and meanwhile face your father. Or you stay, ask for forgiveness, make amends for your rough start, and you let your team guide you down a path that will lead you to a role you're better suited for. But that's going to take putting in the time and effort. It's going to mean earning your stripes. And it's going to hurt before it gets better."

Sommers sighed. "I need to think about this."

Ziva nodded. "Yeah, do you. I will leave you with one final thought. These people are my family. If you do anything else to disrespect them, or if you do anything to hurt them or bring them harm, you will have to deal with me."

Sommers looked up into Ziva's eyes, fear in his own, and nodded cautiously at her. She nodded back once and let herself out of the car.

********WDYG?********

Tony and Jethro left the front entrance of the hotel and Tony looked at his phone to make sure they were going in the right direction.

"It's two blocks east and three blocks north," he said, slipping his phone in his pocket.

He and Jethro strolled casually down the walkway. They'd finally gotten out of bed and decided to walk to a restaurant not too far from them for a good lunch. They were only a half block away from the hotel when Jethro folded his hand into Tony's, entwining their fingers. Tony smiled.

"Feeling brave?" Tony asked, echoing their walk in the snow months before.

"Proud," Jethro said with a smirk, remembering when the question was first asked.

"Same here," Tony said. "Very proud actually." They were quiet for the next block, simply enjoying each other's company.

"What do you want to do after lunch?" Tony asked, finally breaking the silence.

"I don't know. Maybe take in the market? Find a good bottle of wine or two to take back to the room with us tonight."

"I like that idea. We can go ahead and pick up anything we wanted to bring back as souvenirs. Get it out of the way."

"Abby was still trying to get me to agree to go to that crypt. She wanted pictures. I told her that I wasn't spending my honeymoon underground with a bunch of dead bodies."

Tony laughed at the tone of voice and expression that Jethro suddenly sported. "You sure? Maybe we can stray from the tour and give her a freaky story that would make her entire year."

"I'm not having sex with you in a crypt!" Jethro spluttered.

"You know, of all of the places I've dreamed about having sex, a crypt is not one of them. Or a graveyard. I just never really understood that one."

"That's really good to know," Jethro said with a chuckle.

"There's plenty of other places on my list. Don't need to add the creepy to it."

"Where else is on that list?" Jethro asked. Tony looked at him with a raised eyebrow as he saw that Jethro almost looked shy in that way that made him weak in the knees.

"Let's see. The conference room," he said.

"A or B?" Jethro asked. He could see them eventually getting away with B, but not A since it had a giant glass wall.

"I fantasize about A, but realistically I know it will never happen. I'd be happy with B."

"You and your exhibitionist side," Jethro said. "You get off on the idea of someone watching us."

"You get off on the idea of someone catching us. Not that different."

"I guess," Jethro said, his mind getting caught up in the thought. He was interrupted by Tony's next suggestion.

"I've always wanted to have sex against a big hotel room window," Tony said, winking at Jethro when he looked.

"Our room does have a nice big window."

"Exactly!" Tony said. "And what's even better, is we know that we aren't going to run into anyone we know here. Knowing our luck we'd get a room in DC and Abby would walk by or something."

"Now _that_ would make her year," Jethro said.

"Yeah, but if McGee is with her, which knowing our luck and intimate relationship with Murphy's law, he would be, we'd never be able to show up in the office again."

"You want to take advantage of our anonymity while we're here," Jethro said, his thoughts straying to a whisper of a plan.

"Would be our best shot at it. That big window… should probably wait until our last day here so that we don't run into people in the street that have seen us."

Jethro nodded his agreement to that. "Anything else special that you want to do while we're here and anonymous?" he asked with a smirk.

"Actually," Tony said, feeling his face flushing a little bit. "I did have an idea."

"Oh?"

"I was thinking about finding some kind of nice leather cuffs for the bedroom. Genuine Italian leather. Soft and sturdy."

Jethro raised an eyebrow at that. He enjoyed the rare chance he got to tie Tony up, but if he used cuffs he'd be able to restrain him to the bed and undo them quickly if Amira woke up. He approved of the idea.

"Got any place in mind for that?" he asked.

"I may have done a little research."

Jethro chuckled again. "Looks like we're going on an adventure."

"I like that!" Tony said. "It's our honeymoon. It's supposed to be an adventure. We're in Italy! Beautiful, romantic, seductive Italy. I want to explore everything possible. The art, the food, the history, and our sexual boundaries."

Jethro raised an eyebrow at him again. If Tony wanted to explore their sexual boundaries, he had an idea forming that would require calling in a favor from a friend, but it could make their trip extra memorable. If Tony wanted to push the boundaries, he would push them. Hopefully he didn't freak Tony out in the process.

********WDYG?********

UntamedFury: _We've got a problem_

Crow: _What's going on?_

UntamedFury: _One of these brats is going to ruin everything for us._

Crow: _What happened?_

UntamedFury: _Maxx had a run in with some jerk at the FBI._

Crow: _Define "run in"?_

UntamedFury: _He was out recruiting like they were told. FBI pulls up in their cars, gets out, starts swarming the street. Maxx is spotted, takes off running. They chase him down. Then he does something stupid._

Crow: Just spit it out! What the hell is happening?

UntamedFury: _He shot at them. Thinks he hit one. He took off before he could find out how bad. We've been listening to the scanners, and other than the ambulance call there has been nothing. They've gone radio silent._

Crow: _If you took down an FBI agent you're on your own. I can't be connected to that. I'm sorry._

UntamedFury: _What the hell?! The brat killed him- not me. You're going to just abandon me out here?_

Crow: _This is too important for childish screw ups! Do you know what is going to happen to him if that agent is dead? He's going to be hunted down, and the rest of you with him. And when they catch up with him, he's going to be killed. Oh, there will be no fair trial. He, and anyone found with him, are going to be taken into federal custody, never to be heard from again. May even end up at Guantanamo Bay._

UntamedFury: _Please! I don't know what to do! You can't leave me out here. Please, Crow! We've been through too much together. I thought I meant something to you._

Crow sat back staring at the phone. He loved when he begged. His mouth curled up into a sinister smile as a thought came to him. He may not be able to follow the original plan, but he could still get his fix.

Crow _: If you want to make it up to me, a price needs to be paid._

UntamedFury: _What do you want?_

Crow: _A true test of your… loyalty._

UntamedFury: _What is it? I'll do anything._

Crow: _A sacrifice must be made._

UntamedFury: _What kind of sacrifice?_

Crow: _You will sacrifice Maxx. You will kill him and send me the video. Tie him up first. Tell the others that he must die so that the rest of the cause may flourish. Allow him to repent for his ways so that he may be welcomed into paradise for the work that he has done. Then slice his throat. Give him an honorable death with no carving to trap his spirit. Then take his body and dump it somewhere that it can be found so that the police will have nothing to go off of- so that they can't trace him back to Only. They should stop sniffing around once their killer is caught. Then go under for a few days. I'll be in contact after I have a chance to check that the search has stopped and the trail has gone cold._

UntamedFury: _That's going to be a hard sell to the group._

Crow _: No it won't. I believe in you. After all, he will be the fall of Only! You know that it's jihad tradition that one life is not worth the entire organization. We must prevail! Only can be a huge asset to our war, but only if you are untraceable. Maxx is a liability right now, but by dying he will be a martyr! It will turn his shame into honor._

UntamedFury _: Haha! You almost sound like you actually believe this shit. Okay. I'll do it. Who should help me? I can't do it by myself. I'll need help to move the body._

Crow thought about it for a moment. He was torn. A part of him wanted Michael to help, because he was a kindred spirit in a way, and he wanted to feed that darkness. Another part of him wanted Zack to help because he was just so damned innocent, and he wanted to see if he could awaken his dark side. To taint him. _Why not both?_ he decided.

Crow: _Michael and Zack. I feel they are being called to this test._

UntamedFury: _Okay. When should we do it?_

Crow's eyes closed as he imagined what he was going to witness and had to take a deep breath. He pulled up a schedule on the phone and thought for a moment about how long it would take him to get home and alone in his bedroom.

Crow: _Six hours. You have six hours. It won't take long for the FBI to start tracing him back. You need to do this soon._

UntamedFury: _I understand. I'll be in touch soon._

Crow: _Good. And X? Try not to have too much fun. They can't be scared away. Keep it simple._

UntamedFury: _Damn, Crow. You ruin all my fun!_

Crow: _We'll have some fun on Friday in Minnesota._

UntamedFury: _Can't wait._


	9. Chapter 9

_I'm so excited about this chapter. I'm sorry it took so long. Just a reminder that when you see text in [brackets] that's italicized it means that the speaker is speaking in Arabic. You'll have to tell me if you like it. I'm all nervous about it!_

 **Chapter 9**

Sommers tossed his keys on the kitchen table and headed for his room. He was dead on his feet and his head was pounding. He felt stupid. He didn't know why he'd just told Ziva all of that. He shook his head at himself as he undressed quickly, and then tumbled into his bed, phone in hand. He groaned at himself in frustration and then ran his free hand down his face. He sighed heavily and turned to plug his phone in next to his bed and set his alarm. Three hours of sleep was going to go by in the blink of an eye at this point. He needed to let himself sink down into it, but his mind was racing.

His dad has been his hero as a kid. All he'd ever wanted to do was to make him proud. And Aaron always did everything better than him. It wasn't that he was a bad kid or a dumb kid. He did well. He just didn't meet the same standards that Aaron met. And he loved his brother, and his dad, but they had a bond that he was never offered. His mom had cheated on his dad when they were younger, and his dad had gotten custody of them in the divorce. He'd sacrificed a lot to raise them. Being a single military father was hard, and both he and Aaron tried their best to make it easy on him. It didn't always work out, but they tried.

His dad never seemed to understand him though.

There were days where he felt like he'd never make him happy, and those days caused him so much depression that he withdrew from the world. He'd be moody for days, hiding in his room with his computer and music blaring. His girlfriend would try to console him, try to talk him up, but he knew that he was just mediocre. His dad didn't _hate_ him, he just didn't love him as much as Aaron either.

At least he didn't until he became a federal agent.

Now his dad called often to see how he was doing and ask him about work. He wanted to know if he'd been on any serious cases, or any cases that had to do with someone Aaron might know. When he was a floater agent, just going on protection details, he'd get to tell him that he was protecting some high-profile people, but he couldn't disclose who they were. That sounded mysterious and important enough that his father approved. He was even prouder of him though when he told him he'd been selected to be a part of the Major Case Response Team. If he was kicked off the team his dad would be so disappointed in him.

He thought about what Ziva had said in the car that morning. His teammates annoyed him. Their big happy family made him gag at the content little perfect vibe they gave off. But Ziva's story about her background had him thinking that maybe there was more to them than they seemed. He knew she was from Israel, but he didn't know that her dad was head of Mossad. That was pretty intense shit. And the thought that she'd leave that behind to be a part of this team piqued his interest.

And what was the deal with the two GIbbses? He shook his head and rolled his eyes as he looked up at the ceiling in the morning light. Talk about the perfect little family. They both had their teams and their little girl and were off on their honeymoon having the perfect life. He couldn't imagine either of them ever understanding the inadequate feeling he constantly felt.

He got an awkward feeling in his stomach at the memory of Ziva making him interact with the team in the lab. They all looked at him like he had three heads; like they forgot he even existed. A little voice inside of him said that he couldn't blame them. He tried to stamp it out, but Ziva's condemnation of his character in the car started playing ultra-loud over and over again in his head.

"I still can't believe she called me a dick," he whispered to himself. He was suddenly assaulted with all of the examples over the past ten days where he'd been just that, and he groaned loudly, rolling over and pounding his pillow. "Damn it!" He flung himself over on his back in frustration. "Yes, I can."

As he laid there thinking an even more awkwardly painful memory came back to him. He and his high school girlfriend had dated for over two years and broke up when they went off to school because they knew they'd be too far away from each other to keep up a relationship. He'd totally and completely loved her, but he didn't want to stand in the way of her dreams. She had the chance to go to school at Harvard, and he wasn't going to be the thing that held her back. So, he told her to go.

It killed him inside. He became cynical of relationships when he found out that she was already dating someone new two months later. He started a series of college flings and one-night stands that was epic even for a fraternity brother. He changed a lot that year. He knew it. And when he ran into Anna the next summer when they were both home, they decided to hang out. An hour into the evening she got up to leave, telling him that she didn't know who he was anymore, and that she didn't like who he'd become. She had some choice words that hurt a lot more than being called a dick, especially coming from her. He particularly felt the sting of "egotistical douchebag".

He sat up and turned so his feet were on the floor. He bent over, resting his elbows on his knees as his hands went to his face and sat like that a moment. Agent Parke's verbal takedown of him on Friday after he opened his big mouth was very reminiscent of that night. He heard his own whiny words over and over again in his head like a shameful round, the damning syllables overlapping each other until they threatened to pull him apart. He didn't know why he'd said it. He just thought that when he made it to a team he'd finally feel at ease with this job. And he didn't. What was he going to tell his dad when he called to ask about his week? Oh, I spent the whole week typing up cold cases? He couldn't tell him that.

Now here they were in the middle of what was actually a very interesting and high stakes case and he felt stupider than ever for his spouting off in the meeting. Especially since he knew he'd inadvertently attacked the relationship of the two team managers, and he knew more than anything both teams were for some reason unquestionably loyal to them and were heavily invested in that relationship. Hell, Parke had even gone so far as to call him homophobic. And he really had never considered himself homophobic. He just wasn't used to being around any gay people. At least not knowingly, which he had found out very quickly once part of the team was a surprising distinction. There were suddenly all sorts of gay and bisexual people at the office, and he'd never noticed it before.

He couldn't let them kick him off the team though. His dad's disappointment would devastate him more than anything. So, he was going to have to do what Ziva had told him to do and make nice with these people. Ziva said they'd been supportive of her. He didn't want them all into his business like that.

 _That's because you're ashamed of your business,_ that voice inside of him said. He waved his hand in front of his face like swatting a fly in an attempt to shut the voice up. He felt the bitter anger building up inside of him. "Shut up," he said aloud. "Fuck off and go to hell."

He couldn't shake the guilt that was suddenly consuming him of every snide comment he'd made to these people, and all of the bullshit he'd gotten into at the office over the past couple of years. He shook his head and laid back down, determined to go to sleep. He laid there for twenty minutes as he thought about all of the seriously dickish things he'd done since he came on board. He wasn't liking what he was seeing. When he finally fell asleep, it was fitful and restless.

********WDYG?*********

Parke had come back to the bullpen looking like death worn over.

"Hey man, what's wrong?" Elly asked, taking his expression in with concern.

"It's Tiffany. She's not feeling well and I'm here and not there, and I'm just so damn frustrated."

"That sucks. What's going on?"

"Well you know that she's on bedrest for the remainder of her pregnancy. She can't go further than around the apartment, and she's going stir crazy."

"Which she in turn takes out on you," Elly said, understanding what was happening.

Greg sighed. "Yeah."

They sat in silence for a minute, then Elly had an idea. "Why don't you see if Breena can go check on her? I mean, Jimmy's here anyway. Maybe she's available."

Greg perked up at the idea. "Great idea! I'll run down and check with Jimmy about it."

"Cool," Elly said with a smile. "Bishop emailed us the list of potential Crows from the NSA. We're just going through them. They'll be here when you get back."

"I'll hurry," Greg said, taking off for the bullpen.

Elly felt like he'd helped, and that was the first time all day he'd felt like he had accomplished something. He shook his head and started to look through the names of the NSA staff that were in the spreadsheet. There were over 50 of them. He tried to think of a plan of attack and tapped his fingers on the top of his desk. He hadn't had to tackle a whole list of people like this since his days in the financial task force. Since he'd come to NCIS, even when he was in the basement, he had tackled only a few people's bios at a time.

He looked through a few folders on his computer and then smiled. "Aha! There you are! Suckah! Trying to hide from me in my own folders. I knew I still had you," he said softly to himself. He reached down into the inside pocket of his messenger bag and pulled out his iPod. He knew the tech was becoming outdated, but it was just used to store his music these days and couldn't imagine giving up the storage on it to a microSD card in his phone. He'd have to cut his track list down substantially. He slipped the headphones in his ears and turned the small device on, cranking up his tunes, and got to work.

The program had an algorithm in it to take each name and run it through a series of searches. It just needed to be tweaked to run the searches through the NCIS databases rather than the Minnesota State Sherriff's office databases. Ten minutes later and he had the edits done. He had updated the databases and added a couple of new ones to cover Interpol and ensure that no one on the list had been skipping the country on a regular basis and causing havoc elsewhere.

He immediately realized that he'd underestimated how often NSA staff travelled. He raised an eyebrow at how often each name pinged the travel notifiers but didn't see any associated incidents with it. Of course, it was going to take a long time for the program to search for any correlating news articles, BOLOs, and case files associated with the words "murder" and "torture". He monitored the results closely, picking and choosing different ones to look deeper into on a separate program. It was ridiculously slow because of how much memory and data stream his priority program was sucking up, but he worked through it. He wanted to be home with Ned, and he wasn't going to be until he found something, so this was his highest priority.

********WDYG?********

Ziva got home and smiled at Dion as she came through the door to find him drinking a mug of coffee in the kitchen of their apartment.

"Ziva!" he greeted with a bright smile. "I didn't expect you to make it home before I left, beautiful! What a great surprise." She came up to him and he sat his coffee down to bend and kiss her lightly, wrapping his arms around her and feeling her hug him back.

"It is a short relief. I will need to be back in by 1300."

Dion nodded his understanding. "I should let you sleep then, no?"

Ziva nodded. "Unfortunately. Is everything going well?"

"Very," he said. "What about you? How is the case?"

"It is very distorted. We are missing a large piece of the puzzle. We can't seem to put our finger on it, but half of the team is going to continue to work while the other half sleeps and bathes, and then switch out."

"I am glad that you get some time to rest. I shall let you get to it," he said. Ziva didn't let him go for a moment, instead resting her head on his shoulder. "Unless you'd rather me make you something for breakfast quickly?" he tempted her, getting the feeling that she was some kind of weary.

She simply held him tighter, and he held her back, kissing the top of her head. "What is wrong my love?" he asked softly.

She sighed. "This case is ridiculous, but that's not really it. I just had a talk with Sommers, the agent I am _supposed_ to be partnering with now, and I just don't know if I am ever going to get through to him."

Dion's hair smoothed Ziva's hair, silently urging her to continue. She pulled back just enough to look up at Dion's eyes.

"He said some things that reminded me too much of myself. He is in this line of work for the wrong reasons. He's doing it for his father's approval." She shook her head and looked down at Dion's tie for a minute, taking in the pattern, then looking back up. "I was once in those shoes. I know I acted differently because of who I had to be in that role. Colder, impersonal… I mentioned my past, and he was surprised. He did not know it. And there's a part of me that really liked that, and a part of me that felt sad. I have taken on a new identity by being a part of this team. I am very happy with that identity, but it reminds me that my father may not be as proud of me as he could have been, and that's…"

"That's his stupidity," Dion said with a quiet edge. "If he sees the intelligent, talented, beautiful, loving woman that you are, and for some reason is not incredibly proud of you, then he is an idiot."

Ziva smiled up at him, taken aback by the intensity of his response. She loved that Dion was a quietly passionate man. It showed in his words, but even more so in the expression on his face. She reached up on tiptoes to kiss him gently. "Thank you," she said.

"It is his loss, but not one he hasn't earned," Dion said, pushing her hair behind her ear.

Ziva nodded. "I think maybe some English muffins with fruit and preserves may do the trick."

Dion chuckled as he bent to kiss her forehead. "For you my love, anything."

********WDYG?********

Tim was incredibly relieved to be able to run some search protocols on their list of suspects. He knew that Elly was probably going to go above and beyond across the bullpen, but he didn't care. Just the simple task of trying to come up with something through his preferred means was refreshing and comfortable, which was something he certainly _hadn't_ been for the past 48 hours.

"Hey, Elly!" He called.

"Yeah? What's up?" Elly called back.

"What kinds of searches are you running?" he asked loudly to be heard over the divider.

"I've actually pulled my old Minnesota financial package out and am running it through for financial flags on travel costs and deposits, as well as Interpol hits. Cross referencing with the words "murder" and "torture". What are you running?"

"I haven't started yet, but I think it's going to be property and international bank accounts. Probably cross reference BMV and toll road records for anything showing frequent trips to New York."

"Want me to expand my search for trips to the west coast?" Elly asked. "In case there's any involvement with Only?"

"That would be smart," Tim said. "What financials are you pinging for?"

"Rental cars, pawns, gun stores, large purchases, plane tickets, airport purchases, train tickets, deposits over $2500 in the past year, boat purchases, and travel agencies, though I wouldn't expect them to use a travel agency for this kind of trip."

"Yeah, but the whole internet booking thing…" Tim said, typing away at his computer.

"Yeah, the travel agency merchant code and whatnot. I don't know how they get away with that. They have their own category."

"Don't get me started!" Tim said. "I'll see if any of them have bought any property that could be used to store anything. I have a bad feeling about this."

"Yeah, me too," Elly said.

Tim went back to his searches, his fingers flying as his brain took in what passed across the screen more quickly than he could fully process, but knowing the steps to get his searches started so well that he didn't need to. It was all robotic. He fell into it like he was starting to beat his drum in time with his computer's symphony. It made sense to him. It worked.

Greg came back up and joined them. He'd gotten Jimmy's okay to call Breena over to help with Tiff and she jumped on the chance. It was a big relief, and an even bigger relief when Tiffany loved the idea. His nerves calmed considerably.

He sat at his desk and opened up the file. There was a list of potential culprits, and he wasn't really sure what to do with them. He was a little lost. He knew Elly and Tim would be doing the heavy lifting on this. He wasn't good at the technical searches, and they excelled at it. He looked up at Tony's desk and wondered when Bishop would be back. He could ask her details about each one. He had a series of questions he'd like to pose to each of these people and about them.

He opened a blank document and started typing them out so that when she got up there they could do a quick questionnaire for big red flags, and if those were tripped there were qualifying questions underneath them. That took about twenty minutes, then he thought about the information he needed and how to ask for it.

"So, Elly," he started. "What do you think the chances are that Hadley would be willing to give me access to these folks' personnel files and project history?"

Elly looked at him and shrugged. "We'll only know if we ask, right?" he asked. "What are you thinking?"

"You know the search program you built to scan files for certain keywords for the database project? I'd like to sick that on them. I have a few words in mind, and I'd like to see what I can unearth."

Elly nodded and pulled his cell phone out. "Hey, Hadley," he said almost cheerfully. "Yeah! We got 'em. Thanks for that! I was just talking with Parke and he was wondering what it would take to get his hands on the files for your people."

There were a few moments of silence on their end as Hadley responded. "Well, like their project histories, their personnel records, maybe psych evals, that kind of thing. He's a profiler," he finally admitted. "He and Agent Dorneget have been profiling Crow from the beginning of this case, and he has some things he wants to look for."

Another couple of moments of silence. "I think that's completely fair," he said, nodding at Greg. "Great! I'll tell him to look for your email. Thanks Hadley!" Elly hung up with a bright smile. "You'll have an email with a link to give you access to some things shortly. However, you and Ned are the _only_ ones who are allowed to have access to the files. You can share information you find, but you can't let anyone else access the databases."

"Beautiful!" Greg said with a grin. "That will help a lot."

He waited as he stared at his inbox until the new mail notification popped up. He got into the email and followed the instructions to the employee files. There was much more information than he thought he'd have access to, but it had already apparently been pulled together by their teams, and there were people analyzing it from the NSA.

He tried to narrow his searches to things that they wouldn't be looking for, taking his psychologist hat and putting it on tightly, honing his focus on the sadistic trademarks they'd seen so far. He didn't want to scare his team, but Ned had eluded to it already. This Crow guy sounded as evil as they come. Demented, and from what they'd seen in that warehouse, enjoyed his work a little too much.

But it also seemed like he wanted to be caught. He was interacting directly with the teams, leaving them the message on the body, leaving the bodies on the river's bank, and carving the symbol into their backs to mark his kills. He noticed that Carmichael didn't have that. Was it sloppy, or was it intentional? And where in the hell were the guy's feet?

He prepared himself, because he knew these searches were going to take him to a rather cynical place, but he also knew it was completely necessary. He put his headphones in his ears and dug in with determination.

********WDYG?********

Jethro sat down his cup of coffee, staring back at Tony over their empty plates. The meal was delicious. They'd finished it with tiramisu and cups of coffee to polish it off. His soft smile and happy eyes made Tony smile back as he leaned forward, elbows on the table and his mug in both hands.

"It's a gorgeous day. I'm excited to go explore the market. We should go soon though before it starts wrapping up. Street vendors are closed by sunset."

Jethro nodded and motioned for the check as their waiter came by. Tony smiled up at the young woman, responding to her questions about whether their meal was satisfactory. Jethro watched him intensely. He loved the way the Italian language sounded coming from Tony's mouth. It sent a slight warmth through him. When Tony looked back at Jethro he saw the look in his eyes.

"Hold that thought cowboy," he said with a wink.

"I'm holding it," Jethro said calmly. "For now."

Tony cocked a playful eyebrow at him but was interrupted by the waitress bringing their check. Tony handed her cash for their meal, telling her to keep the change, and then motioned for Jethro to join him. They got up and made their way towards the door.

Once outside Tony looked around getting his bearings. The historical architecture surrounding him was like stepping back in time. The colorful buildings, built long ago, were inviting and warm. The streets were roughly cobbled. There was a smell of saltwater on the breeze and his blood sang the song of his history. He breathed deeply, then Jethro took his hand as he leaned into him from the side, resting his chin on Tony's shoulder while talking softly in his ear.

"So glad I'm here with you," he said. Tony turned to him and smiled at the affection.

"Likewise, Jethro." Jethro stood up straight again, and Tony leaned in for a quick peck on the lips, then turned to guide Jethro down the road with a smile so bright he could feel his cheeks ache.

They soon came to the Napoli Mercato. Awnings stretched out over the sidewalks and cobblestone to provide shelter to those selling their wares and goodies. Tony was both glad and disappointed that he was so full. They'd have to come back down this way again before they left just to taste test everything from the local vendors.

Tony found a silk scarf that he thought Ziva would like, and Jethro found a shop that sold handmade figurines and nativity scenes and spent time with Tony's help picking one out for Abby. Other than the creepy crypt, the nativities were another thing she'd mentioned. Jethro was smart enough to take the hint and they'd gotten a small one for her.

"I was thinking I'd get McGee a belt when we go to the leather shop. He's got an appreciation for the finer things. I have no idea what to get the guys though, and I wanted to find something while we were here to give Elly and Ned for their wedding. Or at least look for something. I just can't see myself getting them something like a popcorn maker or whatever."

Jethro snickered. "If you really want to surprise them you can get them their own set of cuffs from the leather shop."

Tony's jaw dropped and Jethro broke out laughing. Tony turned bright red and shook his head. "You did _not_ just say that!" he exclaimed.

"I think I did," Jethro said, trying to rein in his laughter as they stood in the middle of the market.

"I _never_ needed the visual I just got in my head at the thought of that. _Never._ You'll pay for that. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that would be a better gift for Abby than Ned and Elly."

Jethro raised an eyebrow at him. "Should I take the nativity back?" he asked, only making Tony laugh again. He looped his arm in Jethro's and they walked arm-in-arm down the narrow street together.

"I'd already planned on getting her a collar while we were there," Tony said casually as they strolled along. "Or at least keeping my eyes open for one that would be calm enough to wear at work."

Jethro groaned. "I did not need to think about Abby's collars being a sexual thing with McGee… oh god…" He looked at Tony and glared slightly. "That was revenge, wasn't it?"

Tony shook his head no. "No, just general conversation. Our little goth wears collars to work all the time. To think that she and McGee _aren't_ … well that's just the definition of denial."

Jethro groaned again and sighed as he shook his head and decided there was a topic change in their near future. "How about some coffee?" he asked, seeing a café and the much needed out.

"I could do some espresso," Tony said with a raised eyebrow. They let go of each other's arms and moved towards the small shop. They entered and took in the smells. There were homemade baked confections and a menu of coffee creations written in chalk on the wall. "Do you trust me?"

"Yeah," Jethro said, watching as Tony browsed the menu spread out before them.

"Then I'm ordering for you," Tony said with a smirk.

Jethro watched Tony order their drinks, and then watched them being made. It was only then that he noticed that there were liquor bottles behind the counter as well as the coffee grinders and machines. They sat at a small table, and Jethro raised an eyebrow at him.

"Just a little… punch," Tony said with a smile. "Caffe corretto," he explained, "is espresso with a shot. Good way to unwind. Meant to be sipped."

Jethro smirked at him. A young brunette woman came over with a tray and four drinks on it. She sat down two small espresso glasses in front of each man. "Correttos, shakerato, e caffe grande."

Tony thanked her, and then explained the other two drinks. "Iced espresso," he said pointing to his tall glass. "Regular coffee." He nodded towards Jethro's mug.

Jethro picked up the small glass of espresso and sniffed it. "Cognac?" he asked, a raised eyebrow. Tony smiled and nodded as he flashed back to the drinking game their team and company had played around the table at Dion's restaurant months before. Jethro's knowledge of liquors was extensive, and it always amazed him that with such a broad spectrum of tastes he stuck to cheap bourbon.

Tony sipped at each drink as they sat and took in the atmosphere. It was very quiet and peaceful, but not stifled. There was a small group of friends laughing at a table twenty feet away across the shop, and their tempered but joyful demeanor echoed what Tony was feeling. He noticed that Jethro was staring at him with a soft smile. "What?" he asked, smiling back.

"Thinking about a time not even a year ago when I sat in the bullpen watching you drink your coffee I brought you out of the corner of my eye as we worked on paperwork and thinking about how nice it was. How familiar. Just me, you, our work. It was comfortable. You can both energize me and comfort me at the same time. It's…"

"Mutual," Tony said as Jethro tried to find his word. "Mutual, and amazing. Incredible. Beautiful even."

Jethro cocked his head a little to the side and looked into Tony's green eyes. "Beautiful."

Tony blinked shyly as he realized Jethro meant more than the feeling was beautiful. It was oddly sweet, and he sipped his shakerato as he smiled. When he sat the glass back down, he cleared his throat and looked back up into Jethro's blue eyes that were taking him in thoughtfully.

"I really am a lucky bastard," Jethro said softly.

Tony shook his head. "Nope. I'm the lucky one." This was a long-fought battle between them, the parry of phrases that they always came back to, neither willing to budge on who was luckiest between them to have found themselves in their position. The past couple of months found them quietly exchanging those words time and time again, always in a personal moment that no one could take from them.

"Whichever," Jethro said, picking up his small clear glass with coffee and cognac and raising it as a toast. "May we continue to be the two luckiest bastards in the world."

"Here, here," Tony said with a smile, raising his glass to clink against Jethro's. They took drinks from their glasses and smiled at each other happily.

*********WDYG?********

Bishop woke up on Abby's futon to the older woman shaking her lightly. "Ellie?" Abby said softly.

"Hmmm?" she asked, getting her bearings.

"You told me to wake you up in an hour. It's been an hour."

Ellie sighed as she sat up, covering her mouth as it gaped with a yawn.

"Thanks, Abby."

"Sure," she said.

"Did you have any luck finding anything?" Bishop asked.

"Yeah, but you're not going to like it."

"Have you told the guys yet?" Bishop got to her feet and followed Abby into the lab.

"I figured you could tell them. I've been going through the photos of the various footprints in the blood, and there are five distinct footprints."

"Five?" Bishop asked, wondering about the significance of that.

"Mark's, Davis', and three others, one of which I assume is Carmichael's."

"Okay? We already knew that there were other people in the room. Kroger was there, so there was probably someone else there, too."

"But Kroger doesn't have any blood on his shoes. Examining the blood pool and the pattern of the footprints we can see that there's two particular sets that have a much higher print ratio than the others. I think we have two people doing the torturing."

Bishop squinted her eyes at the screen, then up at Abby. "That… sucks."

"This means that either Crow has another adult working with him, or one of these… _kids_ … is getting trained in the fine arts of torture techniques," Abby said, taking it much harder than Bishop expected. "I mean, do you know how evil that is?! And what if it's one of the really young kids? He's dangerous, Ellie! If our teams confront them they may have to take out a kid! That's like, really, _really_ bad!"

Abby paced back and forth for a moment while looking at the ground as she talked.

"And then an alert came in that an FBI agent is in critical condition after one of the kids in the Only group shot him after they tried to arrest him in California. That's like a big gigantic warning from the Universe that things are out of control! They need to be careful."

Bishop started to see the core of Abby's concern. She tried to imagine what each person she'd met on this case so far would do if confronted with a kid pointing a weapon at them. The various results rushed through her head, and none of them were good. She needed to bring it up.

"Thanks, Abby. I'll talk to them. Anything else?"

"Ducky said that the words carved into Carmichael's back were done post mortem. The feet… weren't." Abby twisted her fingers as she grimaced and turned her feet inward slightly as she rose up on tiptoes and came back down.

"Oh, that's bad. And gross. Poor guy." Bishop sighed and grimaced at Abby.

"We're looking at the same knife used for all of the carvings, but the feet were done with something else. It looks like it was started with the same blade, but it was finished with something much larger with a serrated blade, large tooth. Large chef's knife or handsaw."

"Lovely," Bishop said, tilting her head as her eyebrows rose while squinting.

"That's all we have so far," Abby said.

"Let's hope anything else you find isn't as gruesome."

Abby just nodded as Bishop turned to head out to the elevator. She felt rumpled and she wanted a shower, but she felt like they were getting closer and closer to their prey. She couldn't stop now.

She headed upstairs and made her way to the desk she'd been using. Elly and Greg both took headphones out of their ears to greet her. She stood at the desk and turned to Tim.

"Abby found some things," she said, chewing on her lower lip.

"Oh?" Tim said, getting up to move behind Gibbs' desk and be closer to them.

"According to Ducky the feet were cut off before Carmichael died, but the message was carved into him after he died."

"Oh god," Elly said with a disgusted face. Greg hissed and they exchanged a look.

"That's just fucked up," Greg said, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms after dropping his pen on his desk.

"Yeah, well it gets worse," she said grimly.

"How?" Tim asked incredulously but quietly.

"Abby said that the footprint pattern in the blood indicates that there were two people doing the torturing."

"Huh?" Elly asked, cocking his head in disbelief, his mouth hanging open.

"And if there's a second person, there's a good chance it's one of the kids. Apparently, a kid in Only shot an FBI agent today. She's worried with their violence levels that if you encounter them in the field you may find yourselves with the possibility of shooting a child."

Greg watched Tim and Elly's expressions to see what they were feeling about that. The way they had both frozen told him what he needed to know. He spoke up. "I don't know if I can do that," he said. "If they appear really young… I might not be able to take the shot. Not right now with everything going on with my own baby."

Greg swallowed and all of them looked at him. "I need to disclose that. I…" He shook his head and swallowed, but he knew he was doing the right thing by telling them.

"I don't know if any of us can, Greg," Tim said. "I think we'd all have a hard time with that."

"I don't want Ned put in that position," Elly said, looking between them. "I'd rather do it myself than have him deal with that."

Something in Bishop broke at hearing his voice saying those words. She could feel the love and protectiveness coming from him, and it amazed her. She couldn't imagine feeling that kind of love from someone. The kind of love where they'd be willing to take out a kid if necessary. She knew Jake had her back, but there were certain lines you just didn't cross, even in their fields. Those that had to deal with the death of a child at their hands in law enforcement often didn't make it back to the field, and if they did it was after incredibly extensive counseling.

"We just have to keep in mind that this may be someone young, but they have been a part of unspeakable acts of torture," Tim said quietly. "They helped cut off a man's feet, slice up another man, beat and broke a _Marine_ , and god only knows what else."

"We need to only send people out to arrest them that feel like they can handle this possibility," Greg said calmly. "I know I can't. You two may be able to. I can stay back with Ned and use coms or something to help profile them, but I don't know if we should go out there. Ned just had to take his first life a couple of months ago. He shouldn't be up against this so soon. And I don't know if Sommers should be in that position either. I don't know him well enough to know which way he'd go on this, and we can't take the chances that anyone would freeze up in that moment."

"I'll talk to Sommers and Ziva about it when they get back. They're my team anyway. My responsibility as their SFA to know their limits. I know what Ziva's capable of. The fallout is one thing, but I agree that we should only take people into the field on this one who can deal with the situation in the moment."

"Please don't bring it up to Ned," Elly said. "I don't want him fighting me on this decision. It's both personal and professional. To say anything different would be a lie, but I don't care. I need him in one piece, and I won't be able to focus in the field if I'm worried about him _and_ the possibility of one of us having to shoot a kid."

Tim nodded slowly. "I think I can make that work."

"Thank you," Elly said with a relieved sigh.

"I think I'm going to run downstairs and take a nap for an hour or so while my searches run. I'll set them to ping you if anything catches," he said looking at Elly.

"Sounds good," Elly said. The five of them exchanged looks, and then got back to work. Elly and Greg started explaining what they were looking for to Bishop, and she started looking through the lists. She was able to start crossing off names for them right away.

"Looking at this list I can see why everyone was at each other's throats at the NSA," she said lost in thought as she read over it. "We've profiled it down to being a man," she said. "With what we've seen I'd say that our profile is correct. We can eliminate fifteen of these names."

"We noticed that, too," Greg said.

"We put them at the bottom of the priority lists for the searches we're running and the files we're going through," Elly confirmed.

"What files?" Bishop asked, looking up from the list.

"Hadley gave me access to various files from the NSA with the explicit instructions that only Ned and I are to have access to them," Greg said. "But I have a series of questions I'd like to ask you about the people on your list. You probably won't know half of them, but let's see what we can dredge up, shall we?"

"Yeah, let's do it," she said.

They spent the next three hours asking each other questions and running searches until they were brain fried, and regretfully they hadn't gotten anywhere. They couldn't cross off too many more people, and each person they investigated together as a group took at least fifteen minutes. They weren't making any headway.

Bishop got a text from Jake and she sighed.

\- _I was recalled to DC. I guess they think it's too dangerous in L.A. right now with everything going on._

 _\- - Well I think what we're dealing with is a little more important than the wiretapping case._

 _\- That was my argument before they sent me out there. I didn't want to be away from you while we're dealing with all of this._

 _\- -We? I can handle it myself. Did you get yourself sent home so that you could get involved in this case?_

 _\- I just wanted to be close in case you needed the support. This is big stuff, Ellie! Your name is on a list of people that could be a mole in the agency! I don't know how to feel about this. I just want to help._

Bishop growled and dropped her phone on the desk.

"What?" Elly asked.

"Jake! He got himself sent home from his wiretapping case in L.A. to butt into this investigation! He can't handle that I might be happier working with another organization for even one weekend! It's like he's terrified that I'm going to want to leave the NSA or something!"

The two men on their side of the bullpen froze in what they were doing, the only thing moving their eyes as they gave each other a brief glance and then stared at Bishop.

"What?" she asked.

Both men looked a little hesitant to answer, shrugging and nodding their heads a little. "It's just that from what you've said, you don't sound very happy there," Greg said tentatively.

"Annnnnnd…" Elly drew out, glancing at Greg for a moment before looking back at Bishop. "You really do fit in here."

Bishop sighed. She rested her head in her hands as her elbows landed on Tony's desk in front of her. "I know." She shook her head and looked up at the two of them. "Losing Mark is devastating, and I know it's going to hit me hard later, but right now, doing this, a real investigation, is more invigorating and simply _right_ , ya know?"

Both men nodded and provided sympathetic looks. "I definitely know. I used to be a part of the tech team here, and before that on a finance taskforce. I'd done a little beat cop work, but this stuff is a whole other level, and it's the level I belong on."

"And I used to do inmate profiling for the prison system in California before I came here. It was a big jump, but I haven't regretted it for a moment," Greg said.

Bishop shook her head again then spoke quietly. "I don't know if we'd survive it if I left. So much of our relationship has become about our mutual work-lives. We used to try to keep them separated, and then about two years ago Jake's security clearance was raised to match mine, which meant we could talk about our projects with one another. It was like suddenly everything was better. If we don't work together I'm afraid that we're going to come apart at the seams. We're stronger now than we've ever been."

"That sucks," Elly said sadly.

"You know, Ellie," Greg said softly, "that a relationship based on something that can be taken away so easily, that can change literally overnight, isn't a healthy relationship. You need to get back to the roots of why you fell in love with each other. You also need to have your autonomy from one another."

"We both have friends and interests outside of work and we're both very independent outside of work. But those three years where my clearance just kept going up a level higher than his were frustrating. He could tell me about his work, but I couldn't tell him about mine, and I guess that mutual exchange and his involvement with my world is important to him. I don't really know what that's like because he was always able to tell me about his cases and projects. I don't know. Let's table this discussion for after we catch Crow."

"Fair enough," Greg said.

"Definitely coming back to it though," Elly said with a crooked smile. "This sounds like something you need to talk though, and if Sommers gets fired like he's slated to next week… well we may need a new agent to fill that spot."

Bishop looked back up and blinked blankly at him. "Uh- I-" Her jaw dropped as she looked back and forth between Greg and then back at Elly.

"We'll talk about it later," Greg said with a smirk and a glance at Elly.

Bishop only nodded.

********WDYG?********

Ned strolled into the bullpen. He had a tray of coffee cups for anyone who needed a good jolt. He'd sprung for the good stuff, loaded with caffeine. His nap was worthless without Elly there. They'd gotten so used to sleeping next to one another that he wasn't sure if he'd ever have a good night's sleep without the other man for the rest of his life. His shower felt wonderful though and wearing clean clothes was a gift he didn't know he'd wanted so badly.

"Oh, yes please!" Bishop said when she looked up and saw Ned with the tray. "Please, please, please!" She was reaching out her hands already as Ned chuckled and came around the side of the desk to her. She grabbed a cup and lowered it to her nose to take a deep inhale with her eyes closed.

"Do I get one?" Elly asked.

"No. You're to go straight home and sleep!" Ned said with a rather parental tone.

"But Ned!" Elly whined playfully, everyone smiling at their goofiness.

"Come on, Elly," Greg said, picking up his stuff and locking down his computer. "We're out of here."

"Just a second. Ned, I just set my searches to hit both you and McGee up with the results. Just login and I think you'll figure it out. I set you up with a username and password to match your work email and home password, since I obviously don't know your work password."

"You guys know each other's email passwords?" Bishop asked with a raised eyebrow before drinking from her cup.

Both men looked at her and shrugged. "Yeah?" Ned said.

"We got nothing to hide. You know, except-"

" _Not one word_!" Ned said with a glare.

"Of course not," Elly said, waiting for Ned to look back down before mouthing the word "porn" to Bishop who snorted coffee out of her nose.

"Ass," Ned said, picking up the stress ball from his desk that Tony had given him as a joke to have something to throw at Elly other than a Lysol wipe tub. He took advantage of that now and without even looking beamed Elly in the side of the head as he bent down to slip his iPod back into his bag.

Elly only laughed and Greg tossed the ball back to Ned once it was retrieved from under his desk where it had rolled.

Ziva came into the bullpen as the two younger men started heading for the elevator. "Hello," she greeted.

"Goodbye," Elly said with a smile. "Nap time!"

Ziva smiled. "Enjoy," she said. She went to put her stuff down at her desk, then came over to join Ned and Bishop. "What do we know? Any new information?"

Bishop realized that it was up to her to brief them on what had happened since their departure. She nodded.

"Coffee?" Ned asked, offering Ziva a large cardboard cup and handful of half and half.

"Yes, please," Ziva said with a smile, then used Ned's desk as a table to pour in creamer. Bishop told them of everything that Abby and Ducky had found, then what they had done so far with the list. She didn't go into the questionability of taking out a kid in the field, but alluded to the fact that if they went out after Crow that Ned and Parke would be responsible for running profiling and coms.

"We have to figure out who we're going after first," Ned said, sighing as he brought up the list they'd been working. "You said you narrowed this list down already? Can you send me the copy with your notes?"

"Sure. You should also have an email from Hadley with a link to our people's files. Only you and Greg are allowed to get into them."

"Hmmm," Ned said with a raised eyebrow as he opened the email.

"Where is McGee?" Ziva asked.

"He went downstairs about an hour ago to take a nap in Abby's lab." On cue the staircase door opened and an exhausted looking McGee came through it. He headed for his desk with a yawn.

Ned got to his feet with a cup of coffee and made a beeline for McGee's desk. "Since I know there's no way you're coming home," he said as he handed Tim his cup. "Vanilla nonfat latte, extra espresso."

"Don't tell Abby or Elly but I think I want to marry you right now," Tim said, his shoulder slumping as he took the cup. He put it to his lips immediately and took a long gulp.

"Sorry, happily taken," Ned said with a smirk. "Bishop just briefed us on what you've found so far. Anything new from Abby?"

"Knife type for dismembering Carmichael is something called a Wusthof? Supposed to be for cutting bread."

Ziva and Bishop had followed Ned to that side of the bullpen, and Ziva's eyebrows went up. "That's a very expensive knife. We have them at the restaurant. Well over $100 each."

"Do you think we could track the vendors or put out word through the restaurant community here in DC to see if any of them are missing a knife like this?" Tim asked hopefully.

"We could ask," Ziva said with a shrug. "The chances are slim, but I would not turn down any possibility at a lead right now. I will text Dion. Have him put the word out."

"That reminds me. I should probably text Jake back." Bishop sighed.

"Why? What happened?" Ned asked.

"He got himself kicked off the wiretapping case to come home and butt into this one. He can't leave me alone to take care of this! He makes me feel like he thinks I'm incapable, but this kind of work feels right. I don't know. Maybe he's right to worry. The more I do this, the less happy I realize I am at NSA. I'm just afraid that he won't be able to take the change if I go to work at an agency. We're great right now. I was telling Elly and Greg that we weren't so great at all a couple of years ago because we had different security clearances and I couldn't talk to him about my work. It really aggravated him. I don't get it."

"Maybe," Ziva said tentatively. "Maybe this is a conversation to have in person. If you tell him about what he's making you feel and what being a part of this investigation is making you feel, and he sees how passionate you are about it, he'll understand."

"I agree," Ned said with a nod. "If Elly wanted to do something else, it would suck. It would. We've gotten so used to having each other at work. But if I knew that what he wanted to do was something that he was more passionate about than what he's doing here, if I could see that glow in his eyes, then I wouldn't hesitate to support him. Whatever it took."

Tim nodded, too. "Same with me and Abby," he added.

"This is obviously bothering you, and you really need some rest," Ziva said, reaching out to squeeze her arm. "You should go home for a few hours. Talk to him, sleep, shower, and then come back. You cannot afford to be distracted right now, and this is obviously bothering you."

"I hate that you're right, but thanks," she said, smiling at Ziva sadly.

"And if you want to bring clothes when you come back I can show you where the locker room is in case we're all stuck here overnight again and you want a shower," Ned said with an encouraging smile.

"Okay, I'm going," Bishop said, turning around and heading for her belongings. "It's 12:45. I'll be back by 4:30," she said over the wall.

As she waited for the elevator she thought that despite how much she hurt from losing Mark, she was completely satisfied with the work she'd been doing over the past couple of days. It felt right, and she was suddenly afraid that she was going to be stuck behind a desk at the NSA for the rest of her life. She needed to talk to Jake about it. As much as she liked working with him, she wasn't sure if this was the right place for her to spend her entire career.

The dark, rainy drive home was spent thinking about what Jake would say if she applied to work at the FBI again, or even the CIA. She was sure that Keo would give her a good reference, and that could be helpful. And she'd worked with a number of FBI and CIA agents in the past few years that she could call in a favor from. And then Elly and Greg had insinuated that they'd like to have her at NCIS. But Jake loved the NSA. She didn't think he would understand why she wanted to leave. She admitted to herself that she really wanted to be an agent, not an analyst.

She pulled past the front of the building and saw the light on in the bedroom window of their apartment on the second floor. She pulled into the garage under the building, and descended into the cavernous, florescent lit abyss. She hated the garage. It gave her the creeps.

With her bag over her shoulder she dragged herself up the stairs to the second floor hallway. She was exhausted, and she wasn't sure if she should nap first or confront Jake first. The fact that she saw it as a confrontation told her the answer. She needed to get this off her chest. At the same time Greg's words of wisdom were running through her head.

 _You need to get back to the roots of why you fell in love with each other._

One of the things that Jake had always told her that he loved about her was her spontaneity. He was such a serious and grounded man, down to his schedule and cereal choices. Maybe he needed to be reminded of just how spontaneous she could be. They always made passionate love when he came home from trips, almost feeling like they'd been apart for years when it was only mere days. Bishop smirked to herself as she decided she'd start this little reunion by taking out her frustration on Jake in the hottest way possible.

She turned the key in the door quietly and opened it with stealth. She was about to close the door behind her when she heard Jake talking to someone. Or at least she thought it was Jake.

She listened closely and tried to make out what was being said. She took a couple of steps closer towards the partially open bedroom door and stopped before she hit the squeaky floorboard.

 _Is he talking in Arabic? I must be losing it. This case is getting to me._ But the more she listened, she heard that it _was_ Arabic he was speaking in. _That sneaky bastard! They have him working on the case too, just from this end! What does he know that I don't?! Maybe that's why he wants me out of the case. The NSA has found something out that they haven't told me yet because they don't want it shared with NCIS._ She took another step towards the door, ready to barge in and demand answers, when Jake raised his voice.

She was able to make out what he was saying now, and it sent a chill through her bones.

" _[Leave her out of this! My wife is not a bargaining chip! You wanted access to the brats, and I have them wrapped around my finger. They'll do anything I tell them to do. You tell me the targets, I take them out in my own special way, the kids take the fall, and you deposit the money.]_ " Jake was quiet a moment. " _[X isn't a problem. He's practically in love with me. He'll rein it in for me if I ask him to.]_

Bishop backed up slowly, her hand over her mouth. She quietly made her way out of the apartment, not sure what to do. She locked the door back behind her with the key silently and ran down the hallway towards the stairwell. A minute later she was in her car and racing out of the parking garage, hoping that he didn't see her driving by outside of the apartment window.

Her fingers shook as she dialed, unsure of why she was calling him instead of Hadley or Keo or even McGee, but Ned's raspy voice was a tether to reality when she answered.

"Special Agent Dorneget," he greeted.

"Ned!" she practically screamed.

"Ellie?" Ned asked, immediately alarmed and on his feet. "What's wrong?"

"It's Jake! Jake is Crow!"


	10. Chapter 10

_Thank you for the feedback after the last chapter! This is the chapter that has a "bypass" section. The second half of this chapter gets dark and explicit, so there's a summary at the end of the chapter for those who can't stomach it so you don't miss any of the important details when you skip over it. I'd say enjoy, but don't enjoy too much! That would be more than a little disturbing…_

 **Chapter 10**

" _Ned!" she practically screamed._

" _Ellie?" Ned asked, immediately alarmed and on his feet. "What's wrong?"_

" _It's Jake! Jake is Crow!"_

"What?!" Ned practically squeaked out as he turned to rush over to McGee's desk. "Where are you?"

"I don't know. I just drove. I think I'm heading back to NCIS."

"McGee," Ned said, trying hard to maintain his composure. "We have a problem."

"Hmmm?" Tim asked, looking up. "What's going on?"

"Bishop thinks her husband is Crow."

"What?!" Tim exclaimed, jumping up from his desk. "Put her on speaker."

"Ellie, it's McGee. Why do you think your husband is Crow?" Ziva joined them and they all listened to Bishop tell her story.

"I got home, and he didn't hear me come in, but he was on the phone with someone, talking in Arabic, and he…" She swallowed and took a deep breath. The three NCIS agents all looked around at each other with expressions that said that couldn't be good. "And he told them that I wasn't a bargaining chip, and that the kids- that he could make them do anything and that they'd take the fall for him when he killed his targets, and that he would keep going as long as whoever he was talking to kept depositing the money."

"Fuck," Ned said through a clenched jaw. He shook his head and looked up to find the others staring at him. "Sorry." He grimaced, then looked at the phone. "Ellie, are you safe right now? Do you want us to meet you or do you just want to come here?"

"I'll be there in about seven minutes," she said. "I just… I don't know what to do."

"We'll be waiting," Tim said.

"Don't wait!" Bishop practically yelled. "Get to work! I want you to start tying him to this as soon as possible. He's an NSA lawyer for god's sake! He's going to know how to cover his tracks."

"I'll fill Elly in. Have him call Hadley," Ned said.

"I'll start pulling phone records and finances," Tim said.

"I will meet you downstairs," Ziva said. "If he had to tell them not to threaten you then you are in danger."

"You need to get him into custody! I don't know if he saw me pulling out of the garage or not, but if he did, he's going to run."

"Ellie, listen to me," Ned said, his voice going into the confident and tactical MTAC persona that demanded attention. Everyone stopped to hear what he had to say. "You said it yourself- he's an NSA lawyer. We need to play by the rules. We have to get a warrant, find _unsinkable_ evidence outside of your testimony, and then and _only_ then can we drag his sorry ass in here. Our priorities right now are making sure you're safe and gathering that evidence. We need to regroup our team, and we need to put all of the players in the right positions if we're going to pull this off."

Bishop took a deep breath. "You're right. Okay. I can do this. I'm on my way in. Go call Elly."

"Do you want me to call you?" Ziva asked. "To have someone on the line with you?"

"I appreciate it, but no. I need a minute."

"Understandable. I will see you downstairs at the gate."

"Thanks, everyone." The phone beeped and Ned immediately began dialing Elly's number. He went back over to his desk and began relaying the story.

Tim picked up the phone to call Parke in. "Where the hell is Sommers?"

"I will call him," Ziva said. She picked up the phone and dialed. Before she could get an answer though the elevator doors were opening and Sommers was jogging to his desk.

"I am so sorry! I slept right through my alarms. Won't happen again. I didn't realize I was so tired."

"We know who Crow is," Ziva said. "Walk with me." She shared a look with Tim who raised an eyebrow at her, but they both went about their tasks.

Once Tim hung up with Parke he headed up the stairs to MTAC. He needed to let the Director know what was going on. He knocked on the frame but the door was open. Vance gestured for him to come in.

"We've got a big problem," he said.

"What's that, Agent McGee?" Vance said, sitting his pen down.

"Bishop's husband is Crow."

"What?" Vance asked, his eyebrows high and his jaw clenching slightly as he leaned back in his chair. "How do you know?"

"She went home for some sleep and walked in to find him on the phone with his handler. She overheard that she's possibly in danger as a target if he doesn't continue to comply, and that there's a money exchange happening. But she doesn't think he heard her come in and she took off. She's on the way here."

"Well I'll be damned," Vance said with a shake of his head. "I didn't know he was an analyst."

"He's a _lawyer_ for the NSA. We're going to have to walk on eggshells through this one. Everything by the book."

"I'd say so," Vance said. "What's happening right now?"

"Ziva and Sommers are on the way downstairs to meet Bishop when she gets here. Dorneget called Critten who is going to call Hadley. Parke is on the way in. We're going to gather as much evidence as possible to get a warrant against him before we rely on Bishop's testimony."

"Good, because you won't be able to. There's no evidence of it."

"When we confiscate his electronic devices we should be able to place the time, length and location of the call, and if we're really lucky, track it back to the handler. And I bet that we could place Bishop in her parking garage for the short time she was there as well. All of those garages have video feed."

"Do it. We'll need all of it to get that testimony into court."

"On it," McGee said, turning to leave.

"Let me know when you have enough for the warrant. I'll call it in. We'll get it express delivered." Tim nodded. "I expect to see you again in an hour or less."

"I'm aiming for half that, sir," Tim said, then headed out the door in a confident rush that impressed Vance.

********WDYG?********

Ned was on the phone with Elly, trying not to think about how he always looked so cute and cuddly when he woke up. Elly had only been asleep about fifteen minutes, and Ned felt bad for waking him. He explained the situation and Elly's reaction matched his own.

"Fuck!"

"That's what I said."

"Really?" Elly asked as he got out of bed.

"Yeah. I wasn't really clearheaded. I still don't think I am."

"Poor Other Ellie. That blows sweaty balls."

"Yeah, it does," Ned agreed with a sigh. "I promise that if I ever decide to go off the deep end, I'll take you with me."

Elly laughed as he slipped clothes on. "That's good to know! And I'll return the favor."

"Good. I need to go start finding things to nail this bastard to the wall."

"I need to go call the Director, and then Hadley."

"I don't envy you. See you soon?"

"Yeah. If I can, I'll grab coffee. Do you need some?"

"We really don't have time for that. Can you bring me a Mountain Dew from the fridge?"

"Got it. I'll see you soon."

"Thanks!" Ned hung up, already logging into the computer.

This was mind blowing. He couldn't believe that Crow was right under their noses this whole time. He doubted that he was going to be able to get his hands on what he really wanted to, but he was going to do what he could to compile as much damning information as possible to help put Jake away once the connection to him was solidified.

Tim meanwhile was pulling Jake's phone records and financials. He did some digging, and he located an account in the Caymans that was attached to his social. He tap danced his way through the firewalls while the request for a warrant was being sent electronically for access to the NSA computer files. He knew it would be rejected, but it had to be rejected before he could take the next steps, which included getting permission from Vance to invoke the Patriot Act and demand the records.

The account in the Caymans was loaded down with cash. There were close to two million dollars in it which made Tim wonder what else Crow, or Jake, had been doing to earn that much. There were only three murders that had turned up in their jurisdiction. What others were there?

He started searching for articles and case files in the systems for others that had the _nun_ carved into them, and he found four men and one woman with the etching. They were all in New York, and none of them had military ties. Two had ties to very liberal Christian churches and one, the woman, had her murder labelled a hate crime based on the rape involved and her ties to the gay community. The other three men were completely different from one another. The cases were already flagged by both the NSA and the FBI. Now he flagged them as well for NCIS.

The elevator dinged and Bishop was escorted out by Ziva and Sommers, Ziva up front and Sommers behind, obviously flanking her protectively even though he didn't think they realized it. Tim was kind of surprised to see Ned jump to his feet and join them on their side of the bullpen.

Bishop was surprised too when Ned embraced her, but she surprised herself even more when she leaned into it and hugged him back tightly, resting her head on his shoulder. He felt safe, like one of her brothers would've felt in that moment, and she chose not to think about that until later and just let herself soak up that feeling because right now she needed it more than anything in the world.

"We'll get him. We'll get him, and we'll nail him to the wall," Ned said quietly. Bishop just nodded before squeezing Ned back a little tighter before letting go.

"Good."

Tim and Ziva raised an eyebrow at each other, and then they shared a look with Sommers who was looking between them and the hug with a confused expression of his own.

"Elly was going to call Vance and then Hadley. He should be here soon. We'll probably all meet up in MTAC. I'm sure you'll be expected to join."

Bishop nodded, then bit her lower lip. "I don't know what to do."

"Nothing," Tim said, earning their attention. "From this point on, you are not to touch the case. Your testimony is going to be on shaky ground already. We need you to stay off the case from here on out. I know it's going to drive you insane, and you can listen in all you want, but you cannot contribute unless asked to."

"I was afraid of that," Bishop said with a sigh.

"We need to get your statement," Ned said. "Why don't you come sit down and you can write it up for us."

She nodded, sparing a glance at the others in the room, then followed Ned over to his side of the bullpen.

The rest of the team worked diligently for the next fifteen minutes, each one shouting out another connection they had and sending Tim the necessary data to add to the warrant. Elly joined them and stopped his searches to run a singular search on Jake's finances and travel. It only took a minute and soon he was staring at his computer with his jaw dropped.

"You all need to see this," he said, getting up with his laptop and coming to Tim's side of the bullpen. Ned and Bishop joined him. They all gathered around the plasma next to Gibbs' desk and Elly put up a map on the screen.

"These are all the places that Jake has travelled over the past three years. Notice in the first year there were only trips to Los Angeles and back, once to Houston. Makes sense. There's NSA offices in those locations. There was a trip to Oklahoma, but I take it that was a family visit?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at Bishop and getting a nod. "Okay, now watch all of the trips he's taken since then."

Various colored dots began appearing one after another all across the country, with multiple in New York City and Los Angeles.

"Oh, my god," Bishop said, shaking her head. "He told me that he's been working this big wiretapping case in Los Angeles. He has spent a _ton_ of time out there and always comes back to tell me all of these things that happened on his trip."

"There _have_ been trips to Los Angeles, but he's had a couple of days in each of these cities, or at least somewhere near them."

Bishop shook her head. "I have no idea what he was doing. The groups we're mainly concerned with are based out of New York and L.A. and a few troublemakers in Texas. None of these cities are raising a flag to me. Maybe they would've to Mark, but I don't think I've ever heard him mention any of them. I could see Chicago, but Seattle? Miami? Why would he be recruiting in those cities?"

"I don't think he's recruiting," Greg said, startling all of them from where he'd arrived silently and stood behind the group.

"Good to see you," Tim said with a sigh. "Sorry to pull you away from Tiffany again. What are you thinking?"

"Possibly meeting his handler," Greg said. "This sporadic pattern, never going to the same place twice, it's very indicative of evasive maneuvers. He's probably meeting up with his handler at these places, or at least somewhere to pick up money, or instructions, or maybe dropping off intel."

"That just gave me the chills," Bishop said softly. "Thinking about all of the intel he has access to…"

"Don't worry," Elly said. "Hadley and Vance already had his security clearance stripped, logins to file servers and email blocked, and they're retracing all of the files he's ever accessed."

There was a loud noise that came from Elly's laptop that startled all of them including Elly who almost dropped the machine. "Oh, shit," he whispered as he looked at the screen and the alarm went off again and again, a repetitive fog horn blaring. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" he whispered frantically, clicking some buttons and setting the computer on the edge of Gibbs' desk to type into it. He turned towards the group with his jaw dropped, shaking his head slowly.

"What?" Ned asked, looking towards the laptop that was facing away from everyone but Elly.

"Bishop, I… I really don't think you should see this."

"Elly, I appreciate your concern, but I just found out that my husband is a terrorist mole and a murderer that's manipulating kids and young adults to make some money. I think I can take whatever you've got there."

Elly looked pleadingly at Ned, who squeezed through the people gathered to come look at Elly's screen.

"Oh, shit," he said. He looked from Elly to Bishop, then chewed his bottom lip. "Might as well show her honey. She's going to find out eventually. Better it be with us here." He looked back at Elly, then crossed his arms and looked at Bishop sadly as Elly nodded and sighed, picking up his laptop and looking at the plasma before hitting some more buttons.

Photos began overlapping of crime scenes from each location of brutally murdered people. Most of them were hanging from chains in dark and decrepit buildings, some were tied to chairs, and a there was a rather especially disturbing one of a man tied to a table that was missing its legs.

"What the hell?" Bishop whispered, going pale. Ned was by her side immediately, and Sommers surprised them by pulling up a chair quickly to catch her as she started to collapse. The rest of them remained silent for a long moment, and then Tim shook his head.

"What search parameters located these?" he asked.

"I was running the keywords "torture" and "murder" through news articles and then secondary searches to the FBI database once those were pinged based on the cities located for each NSA member's travel itinerary." Elly's voice was subdued and he couldn't look anyone in the eye, nor could he look up at the screen.

Bishop was trying to rein in her emotions, but it was barely working. She looked up at Ned with red eyes, her arms crossed around her stomach to keep from getting sick. "Go get that sick bastard. Go get him, and you bring him in here where he can look me in the eyes and tell me for himself that he did this. And if you have to take him out, _don't hesitate._ "

"I have to be in MTAC," Ned said. "But you can trust these guys to get him, Ellie. We've got your back."

"I think we have enough information here. Send it to me and Vance," Tim said, looking at Elly. "Now."

Tim went behind his desk and there were frantic keys clacking from both Elly and Tim as they sent data to Vance.

"Elly, go get the team geared up. I'm going to talk to Vance about our warrant and then we're heading out. Parke, Ned, I want the two of you commed and in our ears the entire time."

"We can do one better," Elly said as he stood up and closed his laptop, swooping it up off the desk. "We've got the new body cams synced up to MTAC now, remember? We can give them a good test run."

"Perfect," Tim said, coming around his desk to head towards the stairs. "Five minutes!"

Everyone took off running other than Ned who knelt down in front of Bishop. "Ellie? What can we do for you?"

"Just…" she looked up at him. "Just keep me involved. I want to be involved."

Ned looked her in the eyes and then nodded. "Come with me."

He led her down to the garage and when he reached for a second earpiece after inserting his, Elly looked at him suspiciously, but handed it to him. He turned around and handed it off to Bishop who slipped it into her ear.

"She knows him, can help predict his next move."

"I don't feel like I know him at all right now," Bishop said with a shake of her head.

"You know him better than us," Elly said with a raised eyebrow. "Could be all we need."

Tim joined them in the garage. "We're stopping at the courthouse on the way. Vance said that the judge will have the warrant waiting with a messenger on the front steps."

"Damn, that's fast," Sommers said as they piled into two cars. Ned, Greg and Bishop all headed upstairs. They checked their coms and could hear everyone's conversations like a bunch of babble.

"Folks, I need you to limit your talking," Greg said. "I can't hear myself think."

"Understood," Elly said, looking at Tim in the driver's seat next to him. Ziva and Sommers had taken the other car, and Ziva soon echoed their understanding as well.

"Let's go over the plan," Ned said as they stopped in the bullpen for the files and things they wanted to take to MTAC with them.

Tim's voice came through the coms, an edge to it that none of them were used to hearing from him. "We're stopping at the courthouse to pick up the arrest warrant and then driving straight to Bishop's apartment. Ziva and Sommers will park their car in front of the garage to prevent anyone from leaving, and then we'll enter the building."

"There's two entrances other than the basement entrance in the garage," Bishop chimed in. "The building is on the corner. One door on each street-facing side, one north, one west."

"Ziva and Sommers, take the entrance closest to the garage entry. Elly and I will take the other one."

"There's stairwells at the four corners of the building," Bishop informed. "There's also an elevator on the North and South sides."

"We'll take the stairs up."

"We're on the second floor, dead center of the westward facing hallway."

They were interrupted by the sound of the cars coming to a halt and a window going down.

"Agent McGee?" a young male voice asked.

"That's me," Tim responded.

"Your warrant," the voice said.

"Got it," Elly said, rolling the window up as they sped off towards Bishop's. They were all silent. They didn't have to go through the exact takedown process.

"We're now in MTAC," Ned informed. "Please activate your body cams so we can adjust."

Greg was standing next to him, remembering the first time he'd been with Ned in MTAC and was just as impressed by his sudden level of control and dominance in the room. Bishop was on Ned's other side, and Evelyn was thankfully at the controls again.

"Evelyn? Can you zoom in on each camera to test its lens strength and clarity? We're going to give this a good hard run."

Ned looked at Evelyn as he spoke and saw that she was practically bubbling to play with their new tech. It was completely controlled by her boards and he saw just how in her element she was as the screens flickered back and forth between the four windows, toggling to give each one a large view, zooming in and out, then toggling back out.

"Here we go," Bishop said as she could see them turning down her block.

Vance suddenly appeared next to her, and she was startled. He laid a calming hand on her shoulder for a brief moment, then dropped it again as he gave her a nod.

They watched in silence as they approached the building, each pair going in their own entrance.

"Go right," Bishop said. "The staircases you'll come to will flank my unit."

They ascended the steps silently, guns drawn. They came out into the hallway at approximately the same time and moved together into the center of the building to stand in front of apartment 2D.

Tim and Elly each took a side of the door. Sommers stood next to Ziva, prepared to enter first as soon as she kicked it in. They all exchanged glances, then Tim held up to fingers, gesturing for Ziva to proceed. She gave the door a hard kick near the doorknob and it broke immediately, flinging open.

*******WDYG?********

Crow: X, listen to me carefully. I have no idea how, but they know about me. I just tried to log into my email and I've been blocked. The same with all of my other accesses.

UntamedFury: Fuck! You've got to get out of there! You've got to run!

Crow: It's too late. There isn't enough time. They're probably going to be here any minute. I'm activating plan B. Do me proud, X. You're everything I could've asked for. I'm going to destroy my phone so they can't trace it back to you.

UntamedFury: I'm so sorry, Crow. You're everything I could've asked for as well.

Crow: Don't try to visit me. Don't try to save me. I won't let them get to you. I promise.

Jake took his phone and dropped it directly into the pot of boiling water on the stove. He waited only a minute before taking it out and taking a hammer to it on the counter until it smashed into a million different pieces. He fed his frustration and anger into it. Next was his computer. He smashed it, using the claw of the hammer and tore it apart. He pulled the harddrive out and smashed it multiple times before dropping it into the boiling water. He took whatever other small parts looked important out and dropped them in as well. They were melting and coming apart nicely. He scooped the harddrive out and continued to beat on it some more, then put it back in the water. He was finally satisfied that he'd destroyed all of the evidence that would tie back to X when the front door was kicked in.

"NCIS! Freeze!" Elly shouted, his weapon, along with everyone else's trained on the man standing in the small kitchen.

Jake turned to face four agents wearing vests and NCIS jackets. He felt somewhat chagrinned that it was this second-rate organization that was finally bringing an end to his chaotic ride, but he knew that this meant he'd have access to Ellie, and that was well worth the degradation of being thwarted by lessers.

He sighed and put his hands behind his head. Ziva, Sommers, and McGee approached him aggressively while Elly went to clear the apartment.

"Jacob Bishop, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…" McGee began.

Ziva grabbed him by the back of the shirt and started pushing him towards the countertop but stopped herself short of slamming him into the formica, reminding herself that he was a lawyer and would use any excuse possible to get their arrest thrown out in court. Sommers assisted in pulling Jake's hands from his head as Ziva cuffed him.

"Shit," Elly said, looking at the scraps on the counter behind them now that he'd returned.

"Is that what I think it is?" Sommers asked, looking from Elly to Tim.

"Yeah, it is," Tim said with a blaze of fury in his eyes.

"That looks like his laptop," Bishop said softly in their ears as the camera zoomed in on the remnants on the counter. "Was he boiling it?"

"Looks like it was boiled," Tim said to confirm, trying not to give away that there were other people on their earwigs.

"He's too calm," Greg said. "He knew we were coming."

"What tipped you off?" Elly said, grabbing Jake and spinning him around somewhat forcefully. "How in the _hell_ did you know we were coming for you?"

"My access was suddenly denied to my email and other files. I knew that my time was up." Jake's calm voice was eerie to all of them.

"This isn't good," Greg said quietly.

"No, it isn't," Ned said.

"Why?" Bishop asked, looking for a quick moment at them before looking back at the screen.

"If he knew that we were coming he had time to warn the others. To notify them. They'll go under," Ned said.

"Or worse," Greg said. "We could've just sped up the countdown for something."

"You find out that we're coming and the first thing you decide to do is smash your computer?" Sommers asked with a scoff. "Must have some disturbing taste in porn." He snapped on a glove before starting to pick up pieces to slip into a large evidence bag. "Didn't want your wife to find out, huh?"

Elly and Tim were looking at Sommers with confused disbelief, but Ziva was reminded of Tony in that moment, and how he had always known just the most ridiculous ways to prod a suspect into giving them information. She smirked at Tim briefly and he saw. He suddenly realized what Sommers was doing as well. Elly was still clueless.

"If you're anything like me though," Sommers continued as he filled the bag carefully, "you probably have backups of your favorites saved to disc, or USB drive, maybe even an SD card. Something small that a girlfriend wouldn't find."

Ziva watched Jake's face as Sommers listed off the types of memory devices to see which one he reacted to. The SD card caused him to blanch, and she realized that was it.

"SD card then? Now, let's see," she began as she headed towards the bookcase. "Where would you have hidden an SD card?"

"Check taped under things," Bishop guided. "He likes to think he's sneaky by taping things to the undersides of drawers and shelves." Ziva casually started groping around the bookshelves, and Elly joined her, searching through the kitchen, then moving to the bedroom as Tim took over holding tightly to Jake.

"Check the bedroom closet," Bishop said. Elly and Ziva started turning the apartment upside down for the tiny card.

Elly finally announced his triumph from the closet. He came out of the bedroom, and as he entered the living room again he pulled an SD card from the inside of a shoe, taped to the underside of the tongue.

"He always hated those shoes," Bishop murmured.

"Can't wait to see what's on here," Elly said with a smirk as he dropped it into an evidence bag.

"See what you can do about determining what his next steps would've been, or what he did before he destroyed his tech," Greg guided.

"I betcha don't want Ellie to see what's on that," Sommers said with a chuckle and an elbow to Jake's arm rather chummily. "What is it? Big booty mamas? I mean, Ellie's kinda hot for a skinny chick, but I can see how you'd need a little thickness in your life occasionally."

Elly raised his eyes to the ceiling, still not sure he understood why they let Sommers keep talking.

"Or wait-" Sommers stopped and looked at Jake with disgust. "You're not, like a pedophile or something, are you? I mean, I know you hang out with kids and all, but that's not like, a sexual thing or something is it?"

"No!" Jake suddenly blurted out. "I haven't been sleeping with any children."

"Oh, but you've been sleeping with _someone_ ," Sommers said, crossing his arms. "I know that look. I've _mastered_ that look. Damn, son! I mean, being a traitor and an underground terrorist and murderer is pretty bad, but you're also a cheater? How low can you get?!"

Sommers took the cap off the marker in his pocket with his teeth and wrote on his evidence bag as he shook his head. He snapped the cap back on and slipped it back in his pocket. He looked at the smoldering look that Jake was giving him and shrugged.

"I'm no angel. I've cheated before. A number of times. But I wasn't married to any of them, and my wife wasn't Ellie Bishop. If _my_ wife was an NSA agent being trained to join the CIA I wouldn't be stupid enough to cheat on her. You, jackass, are a fucking moron."

The reaction he got was uncomfortable for everyone watching, both in person and on camera. Jake calmed suddenly to a cool exterior with a smirk that made the hairs stand up on the backs of more than one neck. Sommers didn't let it show that it creeped him the fuck out though.

"That's okay. A pretty guy like you is going to get _all_ sorts of action in prison." When the smirk barely slipped, Sommers took his last dig. "Dude! You're looking forward to that! Have you been fucking a guy?! I mean, no judgement or anything, to each their own, but damn! How will your terrorist friends like finding out that you're butt-buddies with someone?"

Jake dropped the smirk and just stared at Sommers with wide eyes suddenly full of a violent mixture of rage and fear.

"That's what I thought," Sommers said with a solemn nod.

"He's afraid of his handler finding out about his lover. He must be a part of the group." Greg shook his head.

Bishop's voice was tight and crackled as she spoke. "When I overheard Jake on the phone earlier he told his handler that someone would do anything for him, that they were practically in love with him. I couldn't catch the name though. It sounded like he'd just said S or X or F. His handler knows about him already."

"He's probably been able to protect him. He's not going to be there to protect him now." Greg took in Ellie's haggard expression.

"Okay," Ned said. "Grab what you can and bring him in. The FBI will be in soon to really scrub it for evidence so take what you can."

"Let's go," Tim said, then jerked Jake towards the door. Elly did one more pass through the apartment and picked up Jake's briefcase, then followed the others out of the unit.

********WDYG?********

Ned looked up as he heard voices coming from the elevator. He saw Hadley being escorted by Elly into the bullpen. He glanced at Bishop to see her expression. It was far from happy. He felt a protectiveness come over him. He felt like he'd made a true friend in Bishop. He'd been less than impressed with Hadley's handling of the case and wasn't looking forward to the interaction. He _was_ however impressed with the way Elly was handling their guest. He was being the perfect host. He led Hadley to Tim first, showing the appropriate respect to give priority to leadership. He could hear them talking for a couple of minutes but tuned them out.

It wasn't long before the three of them joined him, Greg and Bishop on their side of the bullpen. Elly reintroduced Hadley to the group, more for Hadley's sake than anything. Hadley smiled but when he looked at Ned, Ned found a sick glee in seeing the nervous apprehension in his eyes. The older man nodded at him, and he nodded back. He wasn't really the type of person to hold a grudge, but he was thinking about becoming one.

Hadley then went up to Bishop. "I don't know what to say, Ellie. I never would've guessed that it was Jake. I can't imagine what you're going through right now."

Bishop gave him an extremely tight and impersonal half-smile. "You need to be here to interrogate him. All we have so far is what I heard and what we've found."

"I'll do what I can," Hadley replied. "Whatever you need."

Ned couldn't help himself. "Before we go in there, is there anything else you'd like to tell us?"

Hadley looked at Ned leerily. "No sir, it's all out there."

"Good," Ned said, no humor on his face.

Elly wanted to glare at Ned for making his job harder, but he couldn't. Ned was too damned hot at the moment, and no matter how much harder that kind of animosity made his temporary role, the hot factor would always win. A confident Ned was sexy.

The entire group got up to head towards interrogation, including Ziva and Sommers. When they got there they found Vance waiting with a sound tech.

"Director," Elly said, surprised to see him there. "NSA Hadley is here."

The two older men shook hands and greeted one another. "Your man is a piece of work," Vance said, unable to rein in the tension completely.

"Apparently," Hadley said with a sigh. "Though I wouldn't call him our man anymore."

"Yeah, I'm sure you wouldn't," Ned said with a challenging eyebrow raised, conveying what Vance had wanted to but politically couldn't. As Hadley turned towards the two-way glass Vance shot Ned a smirk.

"How do you want to do this, Director?" Tim asked.

"I've been thinking about it, and I think we should ear piece Hadley and Dorneget and send them in with Parke in their ears."

"You want me to go in there?" Ned asked with both disbelief and attitude in his voice.

"You've studied his message board posts. You've been in his head from the beginning. And you obviously care about Bishop. All good reasons for you to go in. You understand what makes him tick, and you're least likely to hurt him knowing Bishop is watching."

"I'm not sure that's entirely true," Ned said coldly, sparing a glance at the man through the window.

"Yeah it is," Elly said, putting a hand on Ned's shoulder. "You should do this," he added quietly when Ned's eyes met his.

"Fine. Give me the earwig," he said, reaching out his palm.

He had no idea what he was doing. He pulled out his tiny notebook and pen from inside of his jacket pocket and sat down in a folding chair for a minute as he outlined his questions. Hadley stood next to him, unsure of what his role was going to be.

"Here," Ned said. "Look at these and tell me if you think I'm missing something."

Hadley took the tiny memo pad and read over the list of scribbled questions. He was impressed. They were extensive and covered things he hadn't thought about. "That definitely covers it."

"Alright," Ned said, getting to his feet and taking the notebook back. "Let's get this over with."

Greg followed them out to the hallway and waited for the door to close behind them. "I have a feeling if you give him the chance, he's going to talk. He knows he's caught. If my suspicions are correct you'll just have to give him the opportunity and he'll tell you everything you want to know and plenty you don't. Let him. He'll dig himself a hole straight to the death penalty."

"This is going to suck, isn't it?" Ned asked with a resigned sigh.

"Oh, if I'm right it's going to go beyond "suck". Stay strong, listen to me, and don't hesitate when I tell you what to do."

Ned nodded. "Why do I have a feeling you and I will be talking after this?"

"Because we will."

Ned swallowed and Hadley looked back and forth between them in confusion. He'd been torn apart by the man next to him, and to see him look so uncertain for even that brief moment made him deeply uncomfortable. He gave Greg a brief nod, and then followed Ned into the interrogation room, unsure of what he was really walking into, and anxious to find out.

Greg returned to the observation room to find the entire team had found places to sit or stand and got as comfy as they could be when knowing they were looking at a traitorous murderer. Bishop, Vance and Greg lined up in front of the window, each needing a clear view. Tim, Elly, Sommers and Ziva took chairs behind them, able to see between them somewhat, and Tim motioned for the sound tech to turn up the speaker volume.

Ned and Hadley walked into the room and Ned sat down across from Jake who was surprisingly calm.

"Where's Ellie?" he asked.

Ned felt himself stiffen at the use of her first name, thinking for the briefest of moments that he was referring to his Elly. "She's on the other side of the glass," Ned said. Jake motioned to get up, looking at the glass and began to speak. Ned cut him off. "She leaves if you address her." Jake settled again, hesitantly looking between Ned and the glass.

"I don't understand how this has happened," Jake said, shaking his head.

"You mean catching you?" Ned asked. "Well, it's simple. Your loving, amazing wife came home this evening to get a little sleep. You see, she's been exhausted because of how much hard work she's been putting in trying to catch a killer. A killer that ended up being you. And when she got there she overheard your conversation with your handler explaining how you had The Children eating out of the palm of your hands. She escaped, fearing for her life, fearing _you_ , and ran back to the people she's learned she can really trust- us."

Ned heard Greg's voice in his ear. "Careful, Ned. A little jealousy can be good. A lot can shut him down." Ned nodded almost imperceptibly.

Jake's expression though was saying plenty. His jaw was dropped and his eyes were wide, and he kept looking from Ned to the window and back.

"She… she what?" he asked, barely a whisper.

"She discovered your dirty secret and ran away from you," Ned said.

"I never meant for you-" Ned glared at him, raising his chin. "I mean, I never meant for her to find out that way."

"What the hell, Jake?" Hadley said softly, shaking his head. "We trusted you." Jake turned his attention on Hadley. "We trusted you and now you're one of _them_?"

"Not really. I've never believed anything about them or their cause."

"Then why?" Hadley asked, taking a seat finally next to Ned.

"It's a long story," Jake said with a sigh and a tired expression.

"I'm sure it is," Ned said, a cold edge to his voice no one would trust. "But we have time. Start from the beginning."

"I don't want her to see this. I don't want her to know," Jake said, shaking his head, pleading with his eyes.

"Gently!" Parke said softly. "Walk gently here, Ned."

"She deserves to," Ned said quietly, a little less anger to his voice, trying to follow Greg's guidance but finding it hard.

Jake looked resigned and pained. He looked at the window, then down at the table and his hands. When he looked back up he shifted his eyes from Ned to Hadley and back. "It's almost a relief, actually," he finally said after a long minute. He whisper-chuckled a mirthless laugh. "I don't know where to begin." His eyes shifted around the room as he looked at nothing, then stared straight ahead, unseeing as he began his account.

"It all started two years ago. I'd come across a case file of a tortured man that was part of the data located on a deep web site by an analyst. We were investigating the integrity of the data to take the site owner to court. The crime itself had taken place in France, but the site was hosted out of the U.S. so we were prosecuting.

"The video was in the file. It was the actual torturing of the victim. I was alone in my office when I hit play, and… I was entranced. I was both appalled and mesmerized. I had such a visceral reaction to it. I found myself aroused- incredibly aroused- and when the killer finally took the last slice across the throat…" He shook his head. "I orgasmed so hard that I saw stars."

Ned wanted to stop him. Wanted to keep not only Bishop from hearing the rest of this, but himself as well. He could hear Greg in his ear whispering, "Oh, shit. This is going to get ugly. Don't show any reactions. If he's been awakened to a sadistic personality disorder he'll feed off of your reactions."

Jake continued through it. "I was disgusted with myself, but I couldn't help it. I watched the video over and over again. It became my obsession. I'd watch it daily, multiple times a day. And I felt horrible afterwards. I'd feel ashamed and honestly terrified at how much I… _enjoyed_ watching it." He choked on the word "enjoyed". He cleared his throat and shook his head a little, looking into Ned's eyes.

Ned had a hard time with that. Up until that point he was just listening to Jake talk. Now, with eye contact, it became a conversation. An interaction. He listened to Greg in his ear. "Try to look bored with him. He's not getting a reaction from you. I want to see if boredom causes him to talk more; to push the limits."

Ned sighed, then started picking at a nail as he casually looked up at Jake, then back at the nail.

"I felt too guilty to sleep with Ellie for weeks. Eventually, I gave in, and while we were making love I felt normal again. I told myself I would stop. I deleted my copy of the video, and I focused on Ellie. She was good. She was my salvation. She was light, and innocence, and beauty. And I tried so hard to concentrate on her and forget the video and the things it made me feel."

Ned tried to maintain his bored expression. He picked up the pen in front of him and began lightly tracing the tip across the top of the case folder with the point retracted, not looking at anything in particular before stealing a look at Hadley. He noticed that he wasn't doing so well with the looking bored thing. He looked like every muscle in his face was slack, almost as if he were about to get sick. His dark skin was going ashen, and after the split-second glance Ned focused on Jake, trying to take the bastard's attention away from Hadley.

"Keep going," he said nonchalantly. He wished that he could mind-speak with Greg and tell him how Hadley looked. It was going to become even more uncomfortable in the room if he had to keep interrogating Jake through the smell of vomit.

"About a month later, we were making love when I started having flashes go through my mind of the video. It played through my brain with such clarity, and in the heat of things, I couldn't make it stop. We made love all night, and the entire time I was thinking about that man being sliced, and stabbed, and broken, begging for it to stop. I remembered ever scream and wail and plea, and it fed the intensity.

"The next day I started searching for more videos. I used the data from the case file to track down a list of sites that led to more sites, that eventually lead me to the videos I was seeking. It was a treasure trove. It became part of the thrill that I had snuck my way into a world of people who enjoyed this sickness like me. There were so many videos, and people would comment on them in ways that fed the darkness I'd uncovered inside of me.

"I was on the site more and more. I eventually got brave enough to post a comment of my own. That was a defining moment for me. Before it was just a spectator sport. Now, I was an active participant in this world. And the world welcomed me in. People replied to my comment. They encouraged the darkness, and I knew it was wrong. I knew that this was something completely sick inside of me, but it was powerful, and it made me feel powerful.

"I tried to back away. I'd go a few days, try to lose myself in Ellie and work and whatever else I could. I tried to follow her back to sanity. To a love that was safe and real and beautiful. I teetered back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I'd spend days away from the sites, and then when I had the chance… I'd binge. If Ellie was out of town for something, I'd take the day off and spend it alone in bed with my laptop and the videos."

Ned prayed that Bishop had been removed from interrogation by now. He couldn't imagine what she must be feeling. He tried not to think about what he'd be feeling if the tables were turned and they found out Elly was caving to a sadistic craving like this.

"I received a message one day, and things changed. It was an invite to a live feed of a torture in progress. I didn't even think twice about clicking it.

"The man torturing the other man on the screen was taking requests from the chatroom associated with the feed. People were telling him what he should do next, and if he liked it, he'd fulfill their requests. I couldn't turn away. This was a whole other level. Before it was like a TV show, a recording that a part of me had felt wasn't real, but this… _this_ was very real. I'd never felt anything like that before. The rush, the exquisite pain being demonstrated, the way the darkness engulfed me and welcomed me. By the end of the feed I'd submitted my own requests and watched them be carried out.

"I started getting all sorts of invites and messages. I found that I preferred watching men be tortured. I'd watch women, but definitely preferred men. But the torturer always had to be male. Somewhere in me the ideal of femininity being pure had to be maintained. The goodness I associated with Ellie couldn't be tainted. I needed her to come back to like a home base. But it wasn't working anymore.

"During a live feed one day, I received a message from a man who said he enjoyed watching my suggestions come to life on the screen, and he asked if I wanted to torture a man with him. To host a live feed of our own. I told him that I couldn't, but after a few weeks, it was all I could think about. It became an obsessive thought. Nothing, and I mean _nothing_ could get me to stop thinking about it, dreaming about it, _craving it._

"Even being with Ellie couldn't push away the desires I suddenly had to give in to those evil urges. I had to take this man up on his offer. I caved. He invited me to Los Angeles and we met. I thought it would be a planning session, but after a brief cup of coffee, he took me to a warehouse where everything was already in place. A man was hanging from the ceiling by his wrists, and I felt that darkness consume every single part of me. There was nothing good left.

"We tortured that man live in front of a hundred or more people on our site. I felt power like I've never felt before. That first cut was timid, but after that I had no hesitation. The viewers egged me on. And I loved every minute of it.

"Afterwards, the man I met up with begged me to fuck him under the dripping carcass, and I did and reveled in it. Covered in the stranger's blood- a stranger that I had just helped kill- was intoxicating. Once we took his body down, we took turns violating it further." Jake's expression was no longer pained. Now he was brighter than a sunny day, and it made Ned sick.

Greg's voice came through the earpiece, and Ned was grateful. "Calm down. You look like you're going to kill him."

 _I am!_ Ned thought.

"Ellie has left the room," Greg said calmly. "Ziva went with her. Don't tell him. I know this is really weird, but can you shift your legs to the left? I'm trying to see if I can tell if he's aroused."

Ned tried not to react to the embarrassing request and tried to focus on Jake as he turned in his chair, crossing his legs to the left of him as he reattempted to look bored.

Jake's dialogue had continued. "Later that week I received a proposition. I was sent a message from a man with the screenname DevilsKiss999. He told me he had the ability to put me in a position where I'd be a part of an organization that would pay me to torture and kill people, and that I'd be able to hide within the organization, blaming the murders on it as a whole. I was intrigued. I'd had my first fix and I wanted more. Needed more.

"They offered me a sample. A trial run. I went to New York, though I told Ellie that I was going back to L.A. for work. When I got there, I was offered an assortment of delicacies. A buffet really. There were four people, all mine to kill, and all I had to do as part of it was brand each one with a local gang's signet. That way the gang took the fall. Make it look like it was gang-related activity and no one would suspect anything else.

"I spent the next four days taking my time with them. Each one was different, and each one had something to offer. Three men, one woman. Different ages, different races. Their reactions were spectacular. And branding each one of them made me feel like I was marking each of them as mine. Like I was signing my work. It was exhilarating.

"The next week I was contacted again. I was ready. They asked me if I had enjoyed myself and if I wanted more. I could barely keep myself from begging for more. Begging to be given another feast like that. I thought I'd get to keep blaming the gang, and I was ready to do that. But I was told that the gang was just a test.

"I was told I'd be running an up and coming homegrown terrorist organization made up of these young adults. All I had to do was become a guiding hand for their leader and feed them information that could help keep them from being discovered. The group called themselves The Children of the Prophet. I had second-guesses about that. I was told that some of these so-called terrorists were children, and children were off limits to me. They were back in the world of good things with Ellie, and I no longer belonged in that world.

"They threatened me. They said that if I didn't succumb to their orders they would send the link of the videos of the four I'd tortured and violated to Ellie and I couldn't let them do that. They told me I'd be rewarded for my compliance. I'd have the chance to practice my dark love, and they'd pay me. I couldn't say no.

"So, I became an expert as quickly as possible on running a jihad. I didn't have to be too convincing. I was working with kids that didn't feel like they fit in anywhere and had just happened to have been convinced by someone that this was the cause they should put their time towards. I fed that belief, and soon that was intoxicating as well. I'd travel every month, always telling Ellie it was to Los Angeles, though it never was. I'd get to host live feed tortures and murders, and someone else would always take the fall. I didn't know who set them up, and I didn't care. I got my fix, and my new secret bank account was racking up. It was perfect."

"Then I was given a protégé. He was only 20 years old, and just as dark as me. He only went by X. Seemed a little childish at first, but I got used to it. We began torturing people together, and then we'd fuck like rabbits in the blood of our victims. He helped me organize The Children, and it was his idea to start carving the signature into the victims we'd talk these kids into killing. We had our own sick fantasy of turning each one of them into us. Most of them were actually in their late teens or early twenties, but they were so lost and angry that they seemed much younger, and there was suddenly something about that that seemed so much more delicious.

"We were given small assignments to carry out to prepare for the upcoming larger mission, something my handler referred to as the Bright Jihad. I found the name ironic. So, did X. His hero worship fed me as much as the rest of the darkness, and he became my pet. He started going out to Los Angeles to work with new recruits out there for an upcoming organization called "Only". It was easier for him to travel without excuses needing to be made, and it worked out. We'd still meet up now and then to torture whoever we'd find waiting for us, and meanwhile the assignments continued.

"A few months ago I received a message from my handler saying that they needed me to use my contacts at the NSA to track down some information for them. There was a group of women that were taken from an Iraqi school to be trained as spies. These women were meant to come to the States to be trained as some kind of elite taskforce within Iraqi intelligence. I was told to find them.

"I was taken aback. They'd never once alluded to my work, and I'd never once mentioned where I worked. Not even to X. But the threats came that Ellie would get the videos of all of the murders if I didn't cooperate. I thought about just coming clean, but then I realized X was on the videos with me now, and I couldn't take him down with me. So, I started digging.

"I'd gotten as far as the CIA when I was led back to this guy named Devon that I'd seen around the office. He liked to hang out with Hadley here. I was reporting this back to my handler, as they required an update every day as to what I'd done to attempt to move forward with finding the information. I was given the directive to take X with me, capture Devon, and get the information out of him that we needed."

Their earpieces buzzed, and Greg directed Hadley to play it cool. Ned struggled not to look at the older man next to him, but he could imagine what the expression he wore would look like at hearing that his friend was going to be captured and murdered.

"We'd never had to capture our own prey before, but it was a great new dynamic. We got him coming out of his car. We drove up next to him, and I told him that Hadley had sent me to give him a message, and he climbed in. X drove while I jabbed Devon with a needle of tranquilizer.

"I'd dreamed of this for so long. I had a dream place that I'd wanted to torture someone up in Baltimore. It was an old substation I'd seen next to some abandoned train tracks a year before that had stuck with me. I'd taken a drive up there the day before and prepared. We couldn't hang him from the ceiling, but that was okay. We tied him to a counter, eventually nailing his feet and hands down when he was alert enough to feel the extent of the pain."

Greg sighed. "This sick fuck is getting off on all of the details, but he's telling us everything we need to know. I'm sorry guys, but keep going. He's going to fry for this."

"He held up for a long time. He was our biggest challenge yet. Let's just say that he wasn't a stranger to pain, and we had to walk the fine line between extreme pain and killing him so that we could get the required information. It took cutting off his legs, but eventually he told us about a man named Jessup Carmichael in the Bronx. He'd impregnated one of the women at the school while deployed, and he'd been trying to get her location from his friend in the Marines that knew where the women were going. A man named Raphael Davis who lived in Norfolk.

"What surprised me the most was that our very own Mark Piper was working with them. Of all people." Jake shook his head and sat back, making eye contact with Ned for a moment then Hadley, turning his attentions to the older man and his former coworker. "Mark was a part time CIA agent. And you were trying to get my wife into that fucked up game as well. My Ellie."

"Ned! Don't!" Greg almost barked as Ned started to break his cool composure suddenly and Ned caught himself, turning to cross his legs in the other direction to cover his sudden movements. "It's okay Hadley, you can do this. Don't give him the reaction. He's poking you. Don't let him see it's affecting you. We need him to keep talking. We're almost there."

"I knew it would hurt Ellie if he died, and for the first time ever, the idea of Ellie being in some kind of pain turned me on. Before last week she had been off limits. When I had Mark in front of me though, that knife in my hand, every slice I put into his body made me think of Ellie. She was no longer safe."

"Shit," Greg said. "We need to get him back on Mark and Davis, not on Ellie."

"So, you tortured Mark to get to Ellie?" Ned asked casually. "Did you get the information you were looking for?"

"Eventually, but we had to get creative. He wasn't going to give it up if we just tortured him. We took turns torturing him, Jessup and Raphael for a week. X was getting off on breaking the bones of Raphael. It was his thing, and to be able to do it to such a tough guy had him ecstatic." Jake smiled and shook his head as if endeared by the memory. "We were instructed to cut off the feet of one of them to send as a gift, and X was getting a little too excited about it. Jessup was still alive when we did it, and he screamed for us. Oh, he screamed. When one of the kids that came along after kidnapping them came running up, screaming at us to stop, X put a bullet in his head."

"How'd you feel about that?" Ned asked under Greg's direction since Jake had stopped talking.

Jake shrugged. "It was fine. I would've preferred to take my time with him, but it was done to send a message to the rest of the group members that interfering wouldn't be tolerated, and it got the desired effect."

Ned shrugged casually and blinked once. "How'd you finally get them to talk?"

Jake smiled a sinister smile, then explained in great detail about how he'd sliced up Carmichael as emotional torture for Mark and Davis before they cut off his feet.

"He's devolved completely. He's gone from a voyeur sadist to an emotional sadist who is probably right now fantasizing about killing his wife after emotionally torturing her. This needs to end." Greg put his hand on his stomach as he tried to cope with the nausea he had been feeling for a while now.

Ned was grateful to hear that it was time to wrap this up. "So, Carmichael didn't know where they were, but Mark finally gave them up?"

"Raphael gave up the location that they were sent, and Mark told us what the plans were that he was supposed to exchange with Milaj Hahmar about where they were going to go. We relayed this information back to our handler, and they sent X to California to start heavy recruiting efforts with Only, while I was supposed to prepare The Children."

"For what?" Ned asked.

"The Bright Jihad is beginning apparently."

"What does that mean?" Hadley asked, a sharp edge to his voice.

"Calm down," Greg instructed through the headpiece.

"I have no idea, and I don't really care. All I know is that I was supposed to go out to Los Angeles to meet up with X and we were going to get to torture a man named George Craft. He is an arms dealer that has a shipment of something hidden that my handler's people want, and we were going to find out where it was. X was supposed to get the punks from Only to help him kidnap him before I got there."

"Then why aren't you there?" Ned asked.

"Apparently one of their kids killed an FBI agent. I found out while I was in the airport in Chicago, and caught a plane home instead. I knew we were coming to the end of our run, and I had one more thing to do before we were all caught."

"Which was?" Ned asked.

"Doesn't matter. I didn't get to do it. A dream that will die. You caught me first."

Ned thought back to his list of questions in his pocket and tried to remember which ones weren't explicitly answered. "Where did you torture Mark, Davis, and Carmichael?" he asked.

"A company warehouse building. Henderson's."

"And did you and this X kill everyone you tortured?"

"Definitely," Jake replied with a wicked smirk.

"What's the name of the kid that shot the FBI agent?" Ned took out his notebook to write it down.

"Maxx, but you don't have to worry about him. He's dead. I watched the feed a few hours before your people busted down my door."

"Who killed him?"

"X trained a new recruit in our techniques. I'm so proud of him."

"And DevilsKiss999 is your handler?" Ned asked, ignoring the attempt to elicit some kind of emotion from him.

"He was who arranged things for me originally. Once I was picked up by the jihadists, which I later discovered with part of a branch of ISIS, I started getting orders from a man at a phone number. I was never given his name."

"Where did the feet get sent?"

Jake shook his head. "I won't tell you that. It was X's responsibility to deliver them, and I promised him I would keep him safe."

"Does X really mean that much to you that you'd take the entire fall all by yourself?" Ned asked.

"I figured that if we weren't caught, I'd eventually let X torture me as a penance for my final kill."

"Which was going to be Ellie," Ned said, his voice cold as he put the pieces together.

Jake didn't answer the question, just smiled that sickening smirk. "I'm done talking now."

Ned handed him the pen and opened the folder. He pulled out the report he'd need Jake to write his confession on, and then handed him a blank sheet of paper.

"Good. Then write down all of the names you can remember from The Children of the Prophet's little gang, beginning with the ones involved directly with the murders of Davis, Piper and Carmichael, and where we can find them. And I don't want to hear another word out of you."

[BYPASS NOTES]

Jake unlocked a sadistic personality disorder after reviewing the film for a case that showed a man torturing someone. He became a part of an underground digital world on the dark web of people who tortured and killed people and shared the videos. He eventually was invited to torture people with the promise of getting away by hiding as a part of an organization, then was told he'd be running The Children of the Prophet. He was both blackmailed and compensated in the form of cash and people to torture.

He was given a protégé to train in his dark addiction, and they were in a sexual relationship. This young man went by X. Together they tortured and killed many people. They were given the assignment to locate the women that had been a part of the school in Iraq, that were intended to be trained as spies for the Iraqi Intelligence Agency.

They began by capturing Devon, Hadley's CIA friend, who they tortured to the point they dismembered him. Devon gave up Carmichael and told them that the Marine had impregnated one of the women and he'd been trying to get Davis to give him the location so he could bring her and their baby home.

They used the Children to capture Carmichael, Davis, and Mark, and then tortured them to find out where the women were and what the plans were. Jake devolved completely to the point that he was excited to use emotional torture on them, taking turns for a week to torture each of them as a way to elicit information from the others. He started fantasizing about how Ellie would feel watching Mark get sliced up, and he realized he wanted to torture and kill Ellie.

They eventually got the information they needed by cutting off Carmichael's feet, though he wouldn't give up the location they were being sent because X was responsible for it, and his allegiance lies with X. He eventually says that he was going to let X kill him as a penance for his final kill, which Ned states was going to be Ellie, but Jake refused to confirm.


	11. Chapter 11

_Sorry for the long wait loves! I sincerely appreciate your feedback to the last chapter. I feel good about this chapter. It has a lot more Tibbs in it :) I hope you enjoy it!_

 **Chapter 11**

Ned and Hadley walked into the observation room. Everyone turned to look at them. Ned held up a finger, and then turned and immediately threw up in the trashcan next to the door. Elly was by his side instantly and held up his Mountain Dew for him.

"Sorry, it's all I got here."

Ned nodded and took a swallow to clear his pallet, then pulled Elly in for a tight hug and didn't let go for a long minute. The rest of the room stared at them as Ned tried not to break down. Elly held him tightly and stroked the back of his head, whispering soft words to him that things were going to be okay.

Hadley watched them in confusion, not knowing before that they were a couple, but definitely understanding it now. Vance thought to himself that he was really glad that he didn't end up sending them to Sudan together. Tim and Sommers both looked as pale as Ned and rather daunted. And Greg wasn't sure if he was going to be enough to get Ned through the recovery of this day.

"Where's Ellie?" Ned asked Elly.

His fiancé shook his head. "I don't know. She stormed out, and Ziva followed her. I think she went left down the hallway."

Ned nodded then turned around, not waiting for anyone's approval or giving them time to ask questions. He was followed by Elly and Greg, and together they headed for the stairwell at the end of the hallway. It took a few minutes of searching, but eventually they ended up in the parking garage where they found Ziva and Bishop sitting on a low wall close by. They made their way towards them quickly but cautiously.

They were silent as they approached. Ned sat next to Bishop and Elly next to him. Greg sat next to Ziva.

Bishop's eyes were glazed over with tears, but it wasn't until Ned put his arm around her and pulled her in for a hug that they fell. She wrapped her arms around him and he held her tightly. They all let her cry for a couple of minutes, but then Ned spoke softly.

"It got worse, Ellie. After you left… it got worse."

Bishop sat up and wiped her eyes. Greg handed her a clean handkerchief from his pocket and she took it with a nod of thanks and blew her nose. She shook her head. "What do you mean it got worse? How much worse could it get?"

Ned looked at Greg, who nodded and took over the conversation in a soothing tone.

"Jake took someone under his wing and together they killed what sounds like a lot of people together. There was a sexual relationship between them. They also killed Mark, Davis and Carmichael to find the location of the Iraqi women. It was while torturing Mark that Jake realized that you were his ultimate target." Ned put his arm around Bishop without even realizing it, holding her close to his side, while at the same time reaching his left hand out to grab Elly's. "The man that he was working with goes by X. He's still out there, and Jake is protecting him. We don't know what's going to happen, but there is something called the Bright Jihad in the works, and it's probably going to have to do with some serious weapons."

All of the color had drained from Bishop's face, but Parke continued, almost desperate to explain.

"Jake has developed a sadistic personality disorder. Some believe these are developed, some believe it's more like they are unlocked, or unleashed. He's fully devolved into his. He has come to enjoy both physical and psychological torture, and yet at the same time he knows that these things aren't moral. That actually seems to be feeding his pathology. He's not going to be able to plead insanity. I would very much bet that he's going to receive the death penalty for his actions."

"I don't know which I'm feeling more of right now- horrified or relieved. That's my _husband_. That's the man I pledged my life to. It's hard to reconcile that with the monster I saw in there. It's hard to-" A heartbreaking sob bubbled out of Bishop's chest and she swallowed hard. "That's not my Jake," she whispered.

Ziva and Elly exchanged looks for a moment. Both of them felt out of their leagues with this kind of thing.

"You need some place safe that you can go," Elly said.

"I know where you can go," Ziva said, finally feeling like she was able to contribute something. "My apartment is partially vacant right now. I have been slowly moving into Dion's. My bed is still there, there is still a fairly stocked pantry, and no one would think to look for you there. You are welcome to stay as long as you need. And if you do not want to be alone, I would be happy to stay with you."

Bishop looked at the woman next to her. She'd tried to offer comfort, explaining a little bit about her former CIA lover and the outcome of the relationship. She also had told her of her brother, Ari, and his betrayal. She knew that Ziva knew what it was like to have someone she loved turn out to be something they abhorred. She also knew that she was as independent and logic based as she was. That could be very beneficial. She would be comforted knowing that Ziva was there to support her while not suffocating her. She nodded. "I'd appreciate that," she said, taking a deep breath. "I don't know what to do next."

"Let Ziva take you home," Ned said. "We have a few things to figure out here, but then I'm sure McGee and the Director will let Ziva take you to get settled in. You need like a week's worth of sleep, a bottle of wine, and some serious Ben and Jerry's therapy."

"He suggests Half Baked," Elly said with a smile.

"Half cookie dough ice cream, half chocolate with brownie, and chocolate fudge! Can't go wrong!" Ned said with so much excitement that it startled a chuckle out of all of them. He smiled at Bishop endearingly as she chuckled even with tears running down her face against her will. They all calmed again to silence and then Ned squeezed her shoulder. "I hope that today is by far the worst day of your life. All other days from here on out will be cake compared to today. And I know everything is so super shitty, but you're not alone. We're here for you."

The rest of the group nodded at her as she looked around at them.

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?" she said with a deep breath.

"Hell yeah," Elly said.

"And I have a feeling you're going to find out that you're one strong mo-fo," Greg said with a nod and a cocked eyebrow.

Bishop chuckled sardonically. "What are you guys going to do next?"

"Go after X and the other members of The Children that tortured Mark, Davis, and Carmichael," Elly said. "And then we're probably going to turn it over to the FBI."

"Yeah, that's more their jurisdiction after your killers are caught," Bishop said thoughtfully.

"Nah. It's not about jurisdiction," Elly said with a shake of his head.

"It's about sleep," Ned said with a nod.

Bishop laughed. "I really need some sleep."

"Before you get some, I have a suggestion," Greg said gently. They all looked at him. "You should go have Abby and Ducky run an STD panel on you. We don't know if he was safe with these men, and considering the nature of what they were doing…"

Elly pointed at him with a nod. "That… is a very good idea." He looked at Bishop to find that she looked horrified at the prospect of having caught something from her soon to be ex-husband.

"I will take you," Ziva said, getting to her feet and holding out a hand to help Bishop down from the wall. She got it and pulled slightly as the smaller woman jumped down. The guys all stood around her.

"You guys are reminding me of my family right now," she said quietly. "I have three brothers, and I'm close with my cousin Casey. It's great, because I have no idea how I'm going to tell them about what has happened."

"You mentioned your mom the other day," Ned said as they started a slow procession towards the elevator. "I would start with her."

Bishop nodded. "I think I'll call her tomorrow. I have too much too process tonight."

"Of course," Greg said as they all loaded into the lift. "A lot is about to happen. You need to be prepared for that. And if I were you, I'd contact a damn good lawyer."

Bishop thought about that with a sigh and nodded. "Between figuring out what I need to do with our marriage and my testimony in this case, I will definitely need one."

"I think we may be able to get you the name of a ruthless divorce attorney," Greg said as he thought about what Tony told him one time about one of Gibbs' ex-wives' divorce lawyer.

"Diane's?" Ziva asked with an eyebrow raised at Greg. Greg nodded. "But does she practice criminal law?"

"This may take two attorney's," Elly said as the elevator opened outside of the lab.

Ziva and Bishop got off the lift, leaving Elly, Greg and Ned on it in silence. When it started going up again Greg reached over and pushed the emergency stop. The guys looked at him, and then Ned slid down the wall to sit on the floor. Elly sat next to him on one side, and Greg sat next to him on the other.

"That was bullshit," Ned said.

"No, that was totally badass," Elly said, taking his hand. "You held it together through that whole disgusting confession. _We_ didn't even stay that calm. I thought Vance was going to punch his way through the glass and kill him with his bare hands."

"Heh," Greg said which a chuff. "I thought Hadley was going to pass _right_ out a few times. Or puke all over the place. And I don't think Sommers knows what to do with himself. He was just watching with his mouth hanging open the whole time. I could see his reflection in the glass as he sat behind me."

"Dude, Tim's reaction was the best though. He kept getting to his feet like he was going to bust in there and pull you guys out, and then sitting back down when he knew that he couldn't." Elly looked from Greg to Ned.

"I feel like I was breaking the biggest role of interrogation," Ned said, looking from one to the other. "Stay in control."

Greg shook his head. "You _did_ stay in control. If at any point you spoke, he listened. The thing with sadists is that if you give them just enough rope, they'll hang themselves. They love to re-live their sadistic acts. You saw how much he gave up when you just let him talk. And as soon as you started asking the hard questions he shut down. If you would've pushed from the beginning he would've shut down and we wouldn't have gotten 90% of that."

"I'm surprised he didn't ask for a lawyer," Elly said, trailing his thumb over the back of Ned's hand as they stayed folded together.

"He was ready to come clean," Greg said. "You heard him at the beginning- it was a relief."

"Which probably set the tone for the whole thing," Ned said. "If he hadn't of said that at the beginning, if he hadn't of shown his humanity like that, that there was still a person in there somewhere, I'm pretty sure he'd be dead and I'd be the one in handcuffs right now."

"I could kick Vance's ass for making you go in there," Greg said with the shake of his head. "Thing was, he was right. If things hadn't have gone the way they did, then we would've needed your intel on it. As is, we may need you to go back in and talk to him a second time to get access to the deep web sites he referred to."

"No," Ned said firmly. "I'm not going back in there." He shook his head, and by the look on his face both men knew that was the truth. Ned would not be seeing Jake again until court. He was done.

"What can we do for you, Ned?" Greg asked.

"Just be ready," Ned said with a shrug. "We don't know what's going to happen. Could be nightmares, could be nothing. Just keep an eye on me, call me out if I'm being weird, and take care of Ellie."

"You two have gotten really close," Elly said, squeezing Ned's hand.

"Yeah, and you know, I don't know what it is. She feels like family, you know? Like a little sister or something," Ned said, analyzing it. "I feel like as soon as we started hanging out and looking over the information, I knew that she was going to be important."

"Yeah, she fits in pretty well," Greg said.

"We told her she should apply for Sommers' position when he gets canned," Elly said with a smirk.

"No, you didn't!" Ned said with a look of happy surprise.

"Yeah, we did," Elly replied.

"We insinuated it," Greg said. "Pretty blatantly."

"I'd much rather have her around than Sommers," Ned said, setting his head back against the wall of the elevator with a sigh. They sat in the quiet darkness of the elevator for a long minute together.

"We're going to have to go catch these bastards now, aren't we?" Greg asked.

"Yup," Elly said with a sigh.

"Damn," Ned whispered. "Can we just hide in here? Take a long nap together?"

Greg chuckled. "My idea of a break isn't taking a nap in an elevator with you two."

"Yeah, I mean, if we woke up and Ned was snuggling you by mistake I'd be so fucking jealous," Elly said with a chuckle.

"Okay, let's do this," Ned said, struggling to his feet. The others followed, and Elly pushed the button to start the elevator. "I really wish the boss was here," Ned said quietly.

"Me too," Greg said.

"Me three," Elly said.

"He'd be damn proud of you," Greg said, looking Ned in the eye.

The door opened on their floor and there was a collective sigh amongst them before they trailed out and into the bullpen.

********WDYG?********

Vance looked at Hadley as his agents left to find Bishop. "You should sit down. You look like you're going to fall over."

Hadley nodded and slowly sat down in one of the folding chairs vacated by the team.

"Sommers, can you go get everyone some coffee?" Tim asked. "I have a feeling that we're going to need it. Once this monster is done writing up his list we'll be targeting those responsible for Davis and Carmichael's murders."

Sommers was more than willing to escape for a while. "Any preferences?"

"Go down to Bill's," Tim said. "Tell him you need Gibbs' usual order, and that should be everyone's preference other than yours."

"Can do," he said, leaving the room to Vance, Tim and Hadley. The sound tech took the hint and got up to leave.

"I've left that recording," he said quietly as he left.

They sat silently for a minute, and then Hadley spoke, looking only at Jake. "It would've been so much easier if he was a normal terrorist or a traitor. But this?" He shook his head and then looked at Vance and McGee. "This is something different. Jake was one of us, and none of us saw it. Ellie didn't even see it. How did this happen?" He looked at Vance. "How could he have been doing this the entire time and never once set off our radar?"

Vance's voice was strong but sympathetic. "It's not something you deal with. You're programmed to look for terroristic traits. What this bastard is… is something else completely. Sadists are usually charismatic until they're not. They like to lure people in, and then hurt them. And he's done just that."

Vance's words sent chills down Tim's back. "Poor Bishop," he said softly. "I can't imagine…"

"That's the worst part of all of this," Hadley said. "I mean, losing Mark, and your Marines… that's horrible. What was done to them was reprehensible. But they're gone. Ellie has to live with this now. She's lost her mentor, her husband, her sense of safety and if I have to guess, her sense of self. If she's feeling anything like I'm feeling right now, she's never going to trust anyone we work with ever again."

"You're analysts. You're supposed to analyze and see through all of the façades," Vance said. "And you didn't this time. He was good. Better than you at your own game, but it was also his job to know the game so well that he could maneuver through it when he needed to.

"What I need to know is what we do from here. We have the infamous Crow, but this X punk is still out there, doing god knows what, and he's got ties to a weapons dealer, a bunch of angry post-adolescent wannabe terrorists, and ISIS. Your director is hauled up in Spain somewhere. An FBI agent was shot and is in critical condition in Los Angeles. We need to shake this off and act."

Hadley nodded. He stared at Jake and watched as he sat a paper aside and pulled the papers to write down his confession in front of him. "Looks like he's finished with the list Agent Dorneget set him on. I'll be back." He stood up and headed for the interrogation room.

"We need rest," Tim said quietly to Vance.

"I know. Depending on what's on that sheet of paper, we may be able to go home tonight and get it and start back at it tomorrow. I have a feeling it's going to take extra effort to get our hands on this X kid."

Tim stood up suddenly, watching Hadley interact with Jake. The older man was leaning down on the table, his face right up next to Jake's who was smirking. Tim made a dash for the next room while Vance turned up the sound on the speaker for the room.

"You sick prick," Hadley was saying. "I can't wait to see you fry- you and that little boy toy of yours. Maybe we'll make you watch him go first. See how much you enjoy _that_!"

Tim burst into the room. "Hadley. Come on," he said. The older man stood up, snatched the paper from the table, and then followed McGee from the room.

They made their way back into interrogation. "What did you say to him?" Vance asked as a perturbed Tim snatched the paper from Hadley's hand.

"That he's a heartless demon spawn that needed to give up his little friend."

"And then that he was going to have to watch this X die. Look at him now, Hadley," Vance said, an edge to his voice. They all turned to look at Jake who was looking angry, his pen on the table and his arms crossed. "You'd better hope to God that he starts writing again. I'd rather not submit a jury to the entirety of that interrogation video."

"Director," Tim said. "This list is pretty comprehensive. It gives us names, some usernames, some websites, and a couple of locations. One of which is here in DC, the others are in New York and L.A."

"Where in D.C?" he asked.

"An address on 30th Southeast. I think it's over by Garfield Heights. Maybe Buena Vista." Tim pulled his phone out and started typing some information into the search. "Looks like an abandoned apartment building."

"Does it say which were specifically involved with kidnapping our guys?" Vance said, moving to look over Tim's shoulder at the list.

"Yeah. There's five names listed."

"Go. Research them, get BOLOs out, and gather the team to go raid that address. Use caution. It could be a trap."

"Yes, sir," Tim said, turning to leave the room. He glanced at Hadley on his way out. He wasn't sure how he felt with leaving the two men alone. He almost wondered if Hadley would make it out intact.

********WDYG?********

Sierra was texting with Quinton. Amira would be getting her call from her dads soon, and they were all ready for bed. The two sat on the couch together, Lilo and Stitch playing on the TV. Amira had had questions about why Lilo's sister was raising her, and where Lilo's parents were, but honest answers thankfully didn't cause any reaction other than an understanding nod. Sierra was somewhat surprised by that. She half-expected to need to make a call to Tony and Jethro to calm Amira's nerves, but it wasn't necessary. Amira just rolled with it, and Sierra was grateful.

She knew taking this job would mean the occasional weekend, and she loved Amira, but this was the first test of just how taxing this job could be. She'd had to be there to take care of Amira from the moment she woke up to the time she went to bed all weekend long. And a quick text from Tim let her know that she would probably be on duty all day on Monday as well.

Normally it wouldn't be so bad, but she'd started seeing Quinton, and as all new relationships went, there was a lot to discover about each other that was being thwarted by the little girl next to her. She tried not to be bummed out by it, but she was starting to feel that way as Quinton started telling her how much he wished that he was holding her at that moment.

The movie ended a few minutes before 8:00 and Sierra told Amira to go use the bathroom one more time before bed. While Amira was in there the tablet began ringing on the end table. Sierra smiled as she slid the indicator to accept the call.

Tony and Jethro both looked surprised to see her.

"Hey!" Tony greeted. "You still have Amira?"

Sierra nodded. "Yeah. This case seems to be really bad. Tim said they may have to go to New York this week."

The two older men looked at each other with confused and concerned glances. "Did he tell you why?" Jethro asked.

Sierra shook her head. "I have _no_ details. Zero on the details. All I know is that _everyone_ is involved, so I still have Amira."

"Damn," Tony said. "I'm so sorry, but I am so, so, so grateful for you!"

"We'll make it up to you," Jethro said.

"You don't have to do that," Sierra said, blushing. "I knew what I was signing on for."

"That doesn't mean you don't deserve to be appreciated," Tony said.

Sierra was saved from responding by squeals of "Daddies!" coming from Amira as she ran across the room and jumped up on the couch and then down into Sierra's lap. Her hands reached out and took the tablet and then hugged it to her chest. "I'm hugging you!" she said.

"Aw!" Tony said. He made a noise and wrapped his arms around himself. "I'm hugging you, too, Munchkin!"

"How's the princess doing?" Jethro asked. "Are you being good for Sierra?"

Amira held the tablet back up and nodded. "I helped her clean up after dinner today! She made me mac n cheeses with the hot dogs in it!"

"Oh?" Tony asked. "That's one of your favorites!"

"Yeah!" Amira said. "And then we watched Lilo! She has an alien friend named Stitch, and her sister is her mommy now."

"Okay then," Jethro said with a nod. Tony looked a little confused. Sierra chuckled at their expressions.

"In Lilo and Stitch Lilo's sister Nani has custody of her after their parents die."

The two men nodded, raising an eyebrow at each other.

"Lilo thinks Stitch is an angel, but he's a bad boy, and then he's a good boy!" Amira explained.

"Oh! Okay then," Tony said, as if though that made all the sense in the world.

"How's Napoli?" Sierra asked with a smile. "Tell us what you did today. Let me live vicariously through you!"

The guys chuckled. "It's magical," Tony said with a sigh. "The historical architecture and the food and the market…"

"And the coffee," Jethro said with an approving nod that made all of them chuckle.

"You- you always drink the coffee!" Amira exclaimed.

"But they have extra special coffee here," Jethro explained.

"Yeah," Tony said quietly. "With cognac in it."

Sierra barked out a laugh, but Amira didn't understand. Jethro smacked Tony upside the back of the head.

"Daddy!" Amira squealed with a giggle like she was prone to do when Jethro headslapped Tony. Tony just stuck his tongue out at Jethro.

"We also found some really good wine tonight," Tony said.

"Now I'm really jealous," Sierra said.

"Sorry, it's gone, or I'd share," Tony said as he looked around the room and shrugged innocently. Sierra snickered.

"Daddy, I miss you," Amira said, suddenly looking sad.

"Oh, Munchkin, we miss you too!" Jethro said. "We miss you so much."

"I miss you more," Tony said playfully.

"No, _I_ miss you more," Jethro said back, surprising Tony with his playfulness.

"Wanna bet?" Tony said. "I'll wrestle you for it."

"Try it!" Jethro said with a raised eyebrow. Suddenly Tony lunged and Jethro was topped over on the bed with a yell.

Amira and Sierra were both laughing. "Daddy!" Amira squealed. "Be nice!"

"What was that?" Tony shouted. "I couldn't hear you. I was too busy missing you more!" Suddenly Jethro had Tony pinned on the bed, then his arms were raised in the air.

"I win!" He climbed off Tony and plopped back down on the side of the bed. "See? I told you I missed you more." Tony climbed up behind Jethro and rested his head on his shoulder as they looked into the tablet together.

"Not true," Tony said. "I definitely miss you more."

"You guys are silly!" Amira exclaimed.

" _Why_ thank you," Tony said with a smile, kissing Jethro's cheek quickly before moving to sit next to him again.

"How many more days?" Amira asked.

"You tell me. Today is Sunday," Jethro said.

"Let's say it together," Sierra said. "Got your fingers ready?"

Amira nodded.

"Okay, since today is Sunday, we don't count today. Start with tomorrow," Sierra instructed.

Amira started counting off the days with her fingers. "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday."

"Good job!" Tony exclaimed. "You remembered all of them!"

"Now how many fingers?" Jethro asked.

"Seven!" Amira shouted. "Seven more days!"

"And you'll see us on the seventh, so it's more like you're only going to have to wait six more days." Tony explained.

"Okay," Amira said.

"We took some pictures today. We'll take more tomorrow and tomorrow night we'll call you earlier so that way we can show you all of them," Tony said.

"Yay! Pictures! Are they pretty?"

"Of course, they're pretty!" Tony said. "Do I ever take ugly pictures?"

Amira chuckled but shook her head no.

They talked for a few more minutes and then said their goodbyes. Tony turned the tablet off and sighed, falling back on the bed they were sitting on. "I think it's harder on me than it is on her," he said with a glance at Jethro. Jethro moved so that he was leaning over Tony. He traced his face with his fingers.

"We'll be home soon enough," Jethro said softly. "She'll be okay, and so will we."

"And the case! Jethro I am _dying_ to know what they've gotten into that's so bad that Sierra still has Amira. Not to mention it might be taking them to New York? I mean, what the hell?!"

"Let it go. If it gets bad enough Vance will recall us."

"I'm worrying about Elly and Tim!"

"It's a good test to see what they're ready to handle. It may have some growing pains, but I trust they'll come through with flying colors."

Tony sighed and settled back into the mattress. "You're right."

"Of course, I am," Jethro said with a smug smile that made Tony laugh.

"That bottle of wine is going straight to my head," Tony said.

"Mmmmm…" Jethro hummed, slowly unbuttoning Tony's shirt. "I'd better take this shirt off then. Can't have you overheating."

Tony nodded. "I think that's a very good idea," he said as he reached for Jethro's arms and shoulders, running his hands along them before grasping Jethro's shirt and pulling so that it came over his head. Jethro shucked it over the side of the bed as he finished unbuttoning Tony's shirt. He then resumed his ministrations, bending to kiss his way down Tony's chest and abs.

He wasted no time when he got to Tony's pants, and unbuttoned them, sliding down the zipper. There was no doubt about what he wanted, and with how hard Tony was becoming already there was no doubt that Tony wanted it too. Jethro laid down on the bed between Tony's legs and took his cock in his hand as he looked up into his eyes. He gave it a couple of strokes, loving how the skin was so soft and ridged with veins. They ran under his callused fingers and he turned his wrist slightly to put a twist on things as his stroke reached Tony's head. He watched Tony's expression, his eyes falling into a half-slit that watched him, his mouth slightly open as he took shuddering inhales.

There wasn't anything that needed to be said. As they had been since they stepped foot into their hotel room, their feelings were in the very air they were breathing. It was a knowledge that was absorbed with every glance, every slight touch, every breath and heartbeat. So, when Jethro moved to tease Tony's slit with his tongue, Tony simply fell back to sink into the mattress and let his lover take care of him.

Jethro's tongue swirled around the head as his lips opened wide to take Tony's warm shaft deep into his mouth. He felt it hit the back of his throat and pulled back once with a hard suction making Tony moan. This continued for a few long minutes, his mouth tightening around Tony as hard as he could using just his lips and cheeks, and the pressure was driving Tony mad. Jethro refused to speed up though. Tony tried at one point to thrust up into Jethro's mouth, but Jethro quickly pinned Tony to the bed with his elbows on his thighs. It wasn't until Tony begged in that high pitch whine Jethro loved to extract from him that Jethro smirked and stopped completely. Tony groaned and whined again, looking at Jethro with desperate and frantic eyes, wondering why the pleasure had stopped.

Jethro stood up on the side of the bed and slipped his pants and boxers off. He kicked them to the side and grabbed the lube they'd put in the nightstand. Tony was ready to move into whatever position Jethro decided for him but was taken aback when he straddled Tony's hips. He knelt high, squirting lube into his palm to stroke Tony with, and Tony thought he was going to pass out as he collapsed back on the pillows. Jethro only smirked at him, not saying a word.

Once Tony was generously lubed, Jethro crouched over him, Tony's cock in hand as he gently guided him to his entrance. They both held their breath for a moment as Jethro started pushing downwards on it, and then Jethro relaxed with a sigh as he opened up to Tony. It burned to be stretched this way, but he loved it. The slow descent, taking Tony into him, merging with him like this was a heady exhilaration. His eyes were shut and his head thrown back as he slid down his husband's dick, centimeter by centimeter until finally he was nestled against his balls. He let his entire weight rest on Tony's pelvis and sighed in relief as he looked down to see Tony's glazed eyes looking back up at him.

"So fucking perfect," Jethro whispered, then bent to kiss Tony slowly so that he didn't come dislodged. The movement did raise him a little though so that he wasn't as full, and mid-kiss he rocked his hips to start an in and out motion that caused him to moan into Tony's mouth.

As he sat back up he ran his hands down Tony's pecs and let his fingertips grace his abs before his palms rested on his own thighs to stabilize him during his ride.

The bed provided just the right amount of spring for the rocking to turn into a bounce and soon he'd found his rhythm and was riding Tony hard. The sweat ran down Jethro's body as he felt Tony inside him, going deeper, then not, deeper then not. He shifted so that he was over Tony, a hand on each side of his chest, and the move allowed Tony to hit his prostate with each bounce.

"Fuuuuuucccckkkk..." he whispered.

Both of their breathing was becoming more and more ragged. Tony tried to thrust up as Jethro thrust down, and somewhat succeeded. His hands went to Jethro's shoulders, and his nails dug in without thought.

"Yes, Jethro! God… yes! Don't stop! Please don't stop!"

Jethro didn't stop but did kneel upright again so he could grasp his own cock. He started stroking himself hard and fast, and the sight made Tony's orgasm start to run down the base of his spine.

"Shit Jethro! I'm gonna come!"

"Yes!" Jethro hissed. "Come! Cum in me!"

Tony arched his back as the orgasm ripped through him and he felt his moan caught in his throat as the breath was torn from his body with the sensation. His mind was lost in an electric haze as he felt Jethro's warm cum land on his chest and chin. His head swam through the orgasm and the wine as Jethro collapsed onto the bed next to him. He felt the room spinning a little around him in a dreamy sort of way, and his body turned to wrap around his lover. With his eyes closed his lips found Jethro's and slowly kissed and suckled on them.

They came down slowly together, enjoying their tingles and waiting for the blood flow to regulate in their bodies again. When Tony finally opened his eyes he found Jethro staring at him. He waited, expecting Jethro to say something, but instead the older man took his finger and wiped a glob of his cum off of Tony's jaw, then brought it to Tony's lips. Tony eagerly sucked it off, taking the entire thumb in his mouth and licking it clean.

"Damn. I love when you do that," Jethro whispered.

"I love that you love it. My own personal freak," he said with a smirk. Jethro chuckled quietly, then reached forward and kissed him deeply, exploring his mouth for the taste of himself left behind.

"I need to go clean up. I'm starting to leak on the sheets," Jethro said, untangling himself from Tony to roll over. Tony got out of bed to join him and Jethro merely smirked and reached for Tony's hand as they headed for their oversized bathroom.

"And you think I'm the freaky one," he said with a smile and a shake of his head.

"Takes one to know one," Tony said with a raised eyebrow, and closed the bathroom door behind them.

********WDYG?********

Tim brought a box of evidence to Abby. She looked up from her work on the boiled laptop and cell phone and cringed. Tim's expression was haggard and worried.

"That's not the face of good news," she said.

"It's not," Tim said with a sigh. "We raided the apartment building. No one was there anymore. We gathered what we could find and we're back to square one."

Abby had never seen Tim look so fragile as he did when his expression fell at that admission. She took off her magnifying glass helmet and sat it on the metal table, then came around and opened her arms for a hug. Tim gladly fell into her embrace. They were quiet for a long moment, just enjoying being together for a minute of mutual comfort.

"I know that it doesn't seem like it, because, well, these guys are slippery bastards, but you're doing a great job. I mean, you're doing everything you possibly can do. You just need a new angle," she consoled.

"Thanks, Abs. I have no idea what that angle is though. What am I missing?"

"Try looking at things through someone else's eyes. From the outside maybe? What are you seeing when you look at this through someone else's point of view?"

Tim thought about that for a moment. "I don't know. I can't get out of my own head. I'm so tired."

"Have you asked the NSA guy what his take is on all of this?" she asked.

"He was there in the interrogation and he's pretty much in the same boat as us. He has no idea where to go next."

"But he hasn't been looking at the same pieces of the puzzle that you have. And if that's the case, I bet there are pieces he has that you haven't seen either."

Tim thought about that. "That's true. Maybe what I need is a change of scenery. It doesn't help that Vance has been there every time I turn around on this thing. Not that I'm not grateful for the support, but it just adds to the pressure. I'm supposed to be leading this, and I can't while he's trying not to. I'd rather him take over than do this half in-half out thing he's doing."

"Do you think he'd tag along if you go over the NSA?"

"I don't think so. He's waiting in MTAC with Ned to get a call from their director in Spain once he's sure everyone important is in lockdown."

"Then maybe now's your chance to escape," she said.

"Not until I get some rest first. And Parke really needs to go home and check on his wife, and Ned should go home and get some rest with Elly and recharge. Ziva is with Bishop. Who knows about Sommers. Something is different about him since he went home earlier. I don't know what happened but he's suddenly Mr. Helpful. It's got me more irritated than when he was an asshole."

"Really? That's weird."

"Yeah. I think Ziva may have talked with him or something, but I need to pass out for at least a couple of hours."

"I have taken a couple of cat naps, but could I interest you in two hours on the futon with me?"

"That sounds amazing. Let me go clear it with Vance and send the team home. I think I could get away with a skeleton crew for going to the NSA. Let me get his input and then I'll be back."

"Great!" Abby said, reaching forward to give him a quick peck on the lips. "In the meantime, back to work!" She turned around and went back to the table to put her helmet on, and Tim headed upstairs.

He found Vance and Ned in MTAC finishing a conversation with a stern looking woman. As she blipped off the screen, he walked down to meet them. "Good news?"

"We've just been told that we'll have an audience with his majesty of the NSA at 0600 our time," Ned said with a snarky positive sarcasm. Vance raised an eyebrow at him, then turned back to Tim.

"Tell me you have good news," he said with a sigh.

"Not a drop," Tim said with a defeated shake to his head. "The place was cleared out. Nothing of substance was left behind. We picked up a sweatshirt with some blood on it, but who knows whose blood it was and how it got there. No tech, no messages, nothing but the sweatshirt, some half-eaten pizza, and a slew of fingerprints that may or may not belong to our terrorists."

Vance looked around the room for a moment in exasperation.

"Abby and I had an idea," Tim continued. "We need a different angle. We thought if maybe we went over to the NSA and see what they're doing to track these kids we might get some ideas or insight."

"You want to take everyone to the NSA with you?" Vance asked with a raised eyebrow.

Tim shook his head no. "Just a few of us. Critten would be good with the tech and liaising. Parke would be good with picking up patterns, and Ziva would be good with any translations if we can get her away from Bishop. That will leave Ned time to rest before the briefing with the NSA director, and Sommers would be out of my hair."

"Is he still bothering you?"

Tim cringed. "It's like he's done a complete 180 suddenly and I'm so tired that it's irritating in a whole new way."

Vance nodded understandingly. "It's 2245. If you're going to the NSA I want you there and briefed by time we're on conference with their director. I want you in place before he has a chance to block you. Let Hadley know you're coming. Their idiot caused this mess. They can handle a little inconvenience."

"Thank you, sir," Tim said, nodding at Ned and turning to leave the room to share the good news that they were all going to take a brief rest.

********WDYG?********

Greg got in the car shaking. His nerves were rattled. He was angry and he wanted to cry. He'd gone home and found Tiffany asleep. He crawled into bed with her and held her gingerly, trying not to wake her. Thankfully she just curled into him and he had gotten a little over three hours of sleep. Until she woke him up. And then that was that.

He'd tried to talk to her about how he was going to have to go back to work soon and asked if there was anything he could do for her while he was there for the short time he had left. She became agitated and started yelling at him, saying things his Tiffany would never say. The Prego Monster was in full effect. He tried to calm her down, tried to explain what she was doing to him, and it didn't help. He locked himself in the bathroom to get away from her and jumped in the shower. He desperately needed one, and her yelling at him from the other side of the door ensured it was going to be a quick and efficient cleaning, rather than the long hot shower he longed for.

He came out within minutes, a towel wrapped around him and another drying his hair. Tiffany was sitting on the bed, and the barrage continued. He tried to tune her out as he got dressed, and finally he turned to her in exasperation, unable to hold it back any longer and yelled, "One of us is going to have to work! I know you want to, but you can't! So, it's going to have to be me! Now, I have to go. We'll talk when this case is over." Her sudden silence unnerved him, but he turned to head for the living room, picking up his gun, badge and wallet off the dresser by the bedroom door first.

Suddenly there was something flying right past his head and slamming into the wall, barely missing him. He jumped back and turned to Tiffany. He was shocked, to say the least. "You need help," he said. "After this case is over, we're getting you help." He turned to leave, stepping in pieces of the alarm clock that was broken all over the floor.

Now he was sitting in his car shaking and wondering what the hell he was going to do.

********WDYG?********

Tony was awakened by the sound of the Skype ringtone going off on the side of the bed. He woke up confused. Jethro's head was buried in his chest, and he tried to reach for the tablet without waking him, but as soon as he stirred Jethro was sitting up. Tony gave him a half smile but was worried because a call like this was either Amira having a bad time or them being recalled. He looked at the clock showing that it was a few minutes after 9:00 AM then fumbled with sliding the Skype icon in order to answer the call.

"Hello?" he said blearily, rubbing the grit out of his eyes in the morning light filtering into the room through the window.

"Hi," Greg said nervously.

"Greg?" Tony asked, unsure if he was really recognizing his agent's voice as it would be the middle of the night where he was and they were in the middle of their case.

"I'm sorry to call you, Boss. It's just…" Greg let out a wavery sigh and Tony was suddenly wide awake and on high alert.

"What's wrong, Greg?" he asked. "Is everyone okay?"

Greg cleared his throat. "For now," he answered slowly. "I'm sorry to interrupt your honeymoon. I can tell you were asleep. I wish I was."

"Why aren't you? Is it about the crazy case we heard you're working?" Tony asked, looking at Jethro who was looking back confused.

"This case is a clusterfuck. Everything is a clusterfuck. I… I don't know. I just needed to talk to you."

"Okay, well start from the beginning. What do you need to talk about?" Tony asked, worried about his agent on the other end of the line.

"Well, Friday night I got home and Tiffany had been to the doctor. Things aren't so great."

"Oh, shit. Is she and the baby okay?" Tony and Jethro exchanged panicked looks.

"Tiffany is going to be on bedrest for the duration of the pregnancy. They're worried about her diabetes and blood pressure and the baby is turned a weird way. I mean, it's only a few months into this. We have plenty of time for her to turn, you know, but Tiff is strained, and we've been working this case, and she's mad at me. I tried to tell her that I'm not going to be able to be there by her side throughout the whole pregnancy. One of us has to work. That turned out… badly."

"Greg, we've talked about this. She can't keep treating you this way. I know you love her, and I understand that she's pregnant, but she needs to treat you with basic respect. She has no right to be cruel to you no matter what her past is or how much you love her."

"I know. And I'm terrified of confronting her right now because any additional stress can kill my daughter."

Tony sighed. "Damn, Greg. I'm so sorry. I don't know what I can do, but if you can think of any way that we can help, we will."

"I know, Boss. She just isn't the same right now. I'm sure once baby girl is born everything will be better, and she'll spend the rest of forever making it up to me, but it's just hard right now. And Ned… poor Ned. I need to have my head on straight because he's going to need me too, and it's just… not… right now."

"What's wrong with Ned?" Tony asked, his face contorting in an expression Jethro could only describe as the "What the fuck happened now?" look.

"I'll try to give you the abridged version of our case, but I need to warn you it's a lot to take in."

"Okay," Tony said.

"We got called out Saturday morning at god's hour, well before dawn. We get to the scene and a Marine and NSA analyst had both been tortured and killed. They had this Arabic symbol carved into their bodies that's the trademark of this homegrown terrorist organization called The Children of the Prophet. The NSA analyst's partner and protégé lets us know that no one knew that their guy was missing because he was supposed to be on some island vacation. So, we all realize there must be a mole in the NSA, because no one else knew he was going away except co-workers, and as we know, there's no such thing as coincidences. Kidnapped right before he was supposed to be on vacation so he wouldn't be missed? Nun-uh."

"Damn," Tony said. "Just what we need- a mole in the NSA. And just what you guys need as soon as we're not there with you."

"Yeah, I know. So, the NSA chick, her name is Ellie Bishop and you'd absolutely love her, comes to hang out with us at NCIS to work the case while the rest of the NSA goes insane trying to blame each other for being the mole. Bishop and Ned became friends minute one. I mean, all of us really like her, but he's found one of those lifelong friends with her. Ned and Bishop realized this Children of the Prophet group is made up of really young adults that are practically children themselves, like 18, 19, 20 years old, and that the NSA mole is the leader of the pack.

"Ned and Vance, who by the way is _all_ up in this case, grills the NSA lead on this situation and he gives up that Piper, our NSA victim, was _not_ on his way to the island of paradise for vacation, but for an information drop with Iraqi Intelligence on what they're going to do with 20 women that were being moved by the dead Marine's team in Iraq, who- get this- are now going to be Iraqi spies trained by the CIA. Apparently he's former CIA and moonlights with them still, with the NSA's blessing, as some kind of information conduit, and he was going to train Bishop to take over. She had no idea.

"Then Abby finds a clue and we're off to this warehouse where we find _another_ Marine dead and tortured, and this young kid shot. He's like 18. And the bastards had carved a note into this Marine letting us know that they got the information they needed. So now the pressure is really on. But this whole time, almost 36 hours, we've gotten zilch but more questions and not a speck of a clue about anything."

"Have you-" Tony started, but Greg interrupted him.

"Just wait! There's more! We decided to rotate out to go home and get some sleep, but when _Bishop_ goes home she overhears her _NSA lawyer_ _husband_ on the phone. Speaking in Arabic. To his handler. He's the damn mole and leader of the organization! Yeah. Let that sink in. She takes off, calls Ned, and the rest of us who were supposed to be sleeping get recalled.

"Elly runs a special search on this guy and comes up with all of his travel history for the past two years, and it overlays with a series of _horrible_ , I mean, _gruesome as fuck_ crime scenes, with all of these tortured and murdered people. As you can imagine, by now Bishop is shitting herself, and the rest of us are all sitting there like, what the fuck just happened?"

"Holy shit," Tony said. He and Jethro had exchanged looks throughout the story. The one they both wore now were bleakly shocked and incredibly worried.

"Yeah. It gets better. We go to arrest his ass, and he's _boiling_ his tech. His phone and his laptop are obliterated. In pieces, and those pieces are boiled, smashed, crushed, chipped away… complete goner. I mean, Abby is going after it, and stayed in her lab tonight to attack it, but I doubt we're going to get anything."

"If anyone can get something from it, it's Abby and McGee," Jethro said.

"There's also an intact SD card, but none of us can bring ourselves to look at what's on it yet. Anyway. We bring this asshole in, and Vance has _Ned_ go in with the guy from the NSA to interrogate him."

"Whoa, what?!" Tony asked rather loudly. "Why the hell did he choose Ned?!"

"Because he'd been following the guy's communications on those dark web message boards he's always trolling, and in Vance's words, he was close enough to Bishop that he believed he had the best chance of not killing her husband in front of her since she was watching the interrogation."

"Well, he was probably right there. You remember Brand." Tony sighed.

"Yeah, and it's the only thing that kept me from putting my foot down. I mean, after seeing what he'd done to all those people… I was pretty sure we were dealing with a sadist, and I hate that I was right. I knew if we simply gave him enough leeway he'd hang himself. And he did." Greg was silent for a long moment. When he started talking again, his voice was soft and slow in that way that rage makes some people.

"Ned. God. Boss, Ned sat two feet from a man that described for an hour how he'd devolved into a sadistic personality disorder. From his first discovery of his arousal at watching a man tortured in a video that was part of a deposition for a case he was working on, through his online experiences, to his transition into the actual partaking in torturing and killing another man, and then the sexual release that came with it. Followed up by his continual trail of killings, torturing each as he went, and even being given a protégé to assist him that he began a sexual relationship with, and all as a reward for running the terrorist organization.

"These fucking sickos paid him not only in cash, because there's almost two mil of it, but in _people_. They paid him in _victims_ that he could torture and kill for his sick demented pleasure. And Ned sat right there and listened to all of it as cool as a cucumber, Boss. He just sat there and took it. Even the NSA guy, who has like fifteen years on us, sat in that room with him looking like he was going to retch everywhere or kill the bastard, but Ned just sat there and took it."

"Should I call him?" Tony asked.

"Let him sleep. If he's sleeping at all. You know how he gets with his nightmares."

Tony and Jethro shared a look, and Tony nodded. "Yeah. If he can sleep after that, let him."

"He came back into observation with us and upchucked right into the trashcan. And then he and Elly just held each other for a long time right there in front of everyone, including Vance and the NSA guy and both teams… except for Ziva and Bishop. Bishop had left the room after finding out that the relationship between her husband and the other killer turned sexual. Ziva went with her. And after Ned let go of Elly, his first question was 'Where's Bishop?'. Like, fuck it all if he just took on the equivalent of mental rape for the case, and fuck whatever the Director may have wanted, or Tim, or anyone. He just wanted to get to Bishop and comfort her." Quiet descended again as Tony tried to think of something helpful to say, but Greg's tone had turned angry and protective and it surprised him into silence.

"Fuck it if he's going to have nightmares tonight, because he knew that someone was hurting worse than him. And fuck it if he just pulled that off, because even Tim and Vance were in observation struggling with it all. There was no need for accolades or feedback of any kind. It didn't matter to him, Boss. He just needed the comfort of his man, and to check on his friend. Nothing else mattered. And it's the _people_ that matter to him. And it's the _people_ that should matter to all of us. And I'm torn to fuck and back because I have people I care about that I need to help at both home and work and I can't be in two places at the same time, Boss! I can't-"

Tony heard Greg's voice crack and his heart broke. "Greg…"

"I mean! At least at work when I try to be there for someone I'm appreciated and valued and I can help! When I come home and I try to help I'm called worthless and get shit thrown at me!"

Both Tony and Jethro looked defeated. They didn't have solutions for him. He was in a hard position. Tony knew he had to say something though.

"I'm sorry, Greg. Would it be helpful if you filed for FMLA or something and were able to spend more time at home? What's it going to take to fix this for you?"

"I have no idea. I mean, I keep catching myself thinking that I wish she would've never gotten pregnant, and then I hate myself… I mean, _loathe_ myself, because that's my daughter! That's my baby girl!"

"With what you've been going through, I don't blame you, Greg. And in a year, once the baby is born and hormones start stabilizing again, I don't think Tiff will blame you either."

"Yeah, but with all these new complications, it's a very real chance that we may-" Greg's voice cracked and a hiccup noise escaped that betrayed that Greg was fighting back tears. "We may lose her, Tony." They all got very quiet. "This all may be for nothing," he finally whispered.

"Parke," Jethro said finally, surprising Tony that his husband was going to share. "I know that things have been rough, rougher than they should be for any expecting father, but I can tell you that there is _nothing_ in the world like holding your child for the first time. I expect that you and Tiffany will need to go through some counseling to get past all of this, but that moment… that perfect moment will make all of this worth it. My advice to you is fight, but don't fight alone. Get as much help as possible. Surround yourself with your people, surround her with her people, start counseling, get the best doctors possible, and you _fight_."

Tony took Jethro's hand and gave him a sad but grateful smile. "We're with you, Greg. Just tell us what you need us to do. Do you need time off? Do you need us to take turns coming over every night and bringing food and stuff to distract you guys? Do you need Ducky to come over and talk you all through this or find someone better suited maybe to do it? Do you need help getting Tiffany's friends into town to support her? Do you need Shane? What do you need?"

Greg felt the tears streaming down his face and wiped his nose. His boss always knew how to help, but Gibbs' words hit him hard like a shot of resolution to his soul. He could do this. He could make it, and he wouldn't have to do it alone. He thought through what he was being asked and a couple of things sounded like they fit.

"I think I'm going to need some time off now and then to go home and be with her," he started slowly. He took a deep breath, wiping at his eyes. "But at the same time my work is lifegiving. Actually, it's more like being with you guys is lifegiving. Being able to be there for my team is lifegiving. I need to know I'm making a difference, and I know that with you guys I do."

"You definitely do. We need you, but Greg your family may need you more, and that's okay. We can make it balance." Tony squeezed Jethro's hand, the memory of being with Jethro and Amira on the couch after Leyla died in his mind. He'd chosen to let their teams take on the case while they took care of each other as a family. Now Greg would have to do the same.

"But you guys are my family, too," he said. "And I need to find a way to balance that. I think there are a couple of people in Tiffany's life that we can bring in from out of town to help keep her head on straight. Whenever Breena is around Tiffany doesn't yell at me. She's a good influence, but Breena has a job and a new husband and can't be there to babysit Tiffany all the time. Thankfully she came by today for a while and that helped. I stopped getting angry texts for a few hours. I need to make a few calls to see who else in Tiff's life can come in to spend a week or so with her."

"Let us know what you need. We earned thousands of frequent flyer miles with this trip. We can get them here. You just say the word," Jethro said.

"You guys are so good to me," Greg said. "I hope you know how much you mean to me."

"You mean just as much to us," Tony said.

"I should go. Tim, Elly and I are heading out soon to go to the NSA. I just ran home for some sleep and to check on Tiffany, and after experiencing the alarm clock flying past my head decided to call you. I have been sitting in my car in the parking garage talking to you. I need to get back into the office."

"Alright," Tony said with a sigh. "Good luck with the case. You guys are amazing."

"Heh, sure we are. So far it's been pure luck. Let's see what happens in the next 24 hours, then we'll decide just how amazing we are."

"You proved it long before this case," Tony said. "And Greg?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you called."

Greg smiled on the other end of the phone. "Me, too. Thanks guys. Sorry to interrupt your honeymoon. Enjoy yourselves."

"You call whenever you damn well need to," Jethro said.

Greg smiled even wider. "Thanks guys." The line clicked and Tony sat the tablet on the nightstand before turning to look at Jethro.

"Okay. What the fuck?"


	12. Chapter 12

_Hey folks! Thanks for the feedback on the last chapter! This is a reminder that [italicized words in brackets] are actually being said in Arabic. I'll try to get the next chapter written this week, but I can't make any promises. Sorry/not sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger. ;)_

 **Chapter 12**

Ziva was curled up on the couch with a cup of chamomile tea. It was a little after midnight. Ellie was asleep in the bedroom, thankfully resting somewhat peacefully. She'd checked on her an hour earlier and she was sleeping soundly. She was grateful that their new friend was able to sleep under the circumstances. She'd texted Dion and let him know that she wasn't going to be home that night, but she'd call him with details the following day.

It was her turn to get some rest finally. She had her gun under her pillow, just in case, and a blanket over her. She'd been asked by McGee if she thought she could get away from Ellie to go spend time with them at the NSA the next morning, and she said she'd have to wait to see how the night goes. If things stayed peaceful, she would join them. If Ellie needed her, she'd stay at home.

She sat in the dim light being cast from the kitchen and thought about how their case had led them to this point. When she and Ellie had gotten to the apartment she'd shown her around and offered her something to eat. She didn't have a lot of refrigerated food in the house, but there were some frozen vegetables and some jars of homemade pasta sauce that Dion had cooked up for her still in the cabinet. She'd made them some pasta, and she was glad to see that Ellie still had an appetite. Things would go a lot easier for her if she maintained good eating and sleeping habits.

She'd offered her the shower and showed her where the towels were, then urged her to borrow some clothes from what she had left in her drawers and closet to wear. Ellie was grateful, but sat on the bed and sighing.

Ziva sat next to her in silence, expecting Ellie to start talking. When she didn't, Ziva realized she needed to say something to start.

"We can go tomorrow and get some things from your apartment. Clothes and other things you may need. You can stay here as long as you need. My lease isn't up until the fall."

Ellie looked at her with sad eyes that somehow showed both vulnerability and strength. "I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to show my face at the office again. I mean, my husband was a sadistic terrorist mole. And I didn't see it. I'm not going to be able to trust any of them, and I don't blame them for not being able to trust me."

"You'll find a way," Ziva said. "You just have to take it one day at a time."

"What's really weird though, is that I trust your team with my life. I mean, I didn't know any of you until the other day, and now I feel like you're the only people I can trust. I know in my heart that I can trust my family, after all they have nothing to do with this, but Jake was my family and look at how that turned out."

"I have felt that exact same feeling," Ziva admitted. "When I came here, I felt an inexplicable trust with these people. I'd lived my whole life watching my family manipulate people, spy on them, and play games with people's lives. I came here and I realized that it didn't have to be like that here. I thought I could see through everyone. I was wrong." Ziva laughed. "I was very wrong. There was such a depth to Gibbs, and Tony, and Tim… they all had pain that they lived with, and they still managed to love what they did, and I learned very quickly that they cared very deeply about each other. They were loyal to each other, and they were soon loyal to me. I would not be here today without them and their loyalty, care, and even love.

"And over the years I have been here that loyalty and love has expanded to include Abby, Ducky, Jimmy, and most recently Dorneget, Elly, and Parke. There is not one amongst them that does not have a story to tell, and yet they all care fiercely about each other and what we do."

"You haven't said anything about Sommers," Ellie pointed out.

Ziva sighed. "He has only been with us two weeks. And yet, even he has a story to tell, it just hasn't been told yet. He started to tell me the other night, and I think if he tries to let us in, he will be a better person for it. It is his choice to make, though. If he shuts down now, he will be gone next week when our boss comes back."

Ellie chewed her bottom lip a moment and nodded. "Elly and Greg told me that I should apply to take his spot when he goes. I have to say, that's especially tempting now."

Ziva raised an eyebrow at that. "It would certainly be interesting. I think you fit in very well here. You should meet Gibbs and Tony before deciding on that. Gibbs is the hardest person in the agency to work for, but he is also like a father figure to us. He is demanding, and he will demand that you face your demons before coming here, but he is the type to help you face them."

"I could use all of the help I can get," she responded. "I really appreciate you being here with me. I know you could be used elsewhere."

"I am right where I need to be," she said with a sad smile. "Make yourself comfortable and get some rest. I'll be in the other room if you need me."

"Thanks, Ziva," Ellie said, getting up with a small smile to head for the bathroom. Ziva got up as well and made her way to the kitchen to make her some tea.

Now she glanced at the door for the tenth time to make sure all of the locks were in the right position and sighed in relief when they were. She wasn't sure why she felt nervous about their situation, but something in her told her that this wasn't going to be as simple as she needed it to be. She closed her eyes and decided to force some sleep while she could get it. It didn't take long for her to drift off.

********WDYG?********

Ned and Elly walked into Ned's apartment with the kind of slow lethargy that came after a hard case. Only this time, they hadn't finished it yet, so there was also a tension in the air. Ned headed for the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator. He came back into the living room to find that Elly was sitting on the couch. He took a drink of his water and moved to sit next to him, handing him the bottle. Elly nodded his thanks and took a drink, then sat it on the coffee table. He turned so that his back was against the pillow on the arm of the couch, then reached and tugged Ned so that he was laying against him, his head against his chest. They got comfortable like that, and Ned pulled his phone from his pocket to set the alarm. He sat it next to the bottle of water and then wrapped his arm around Elly's waist.

Elly began carding his fingers through Ned's hair silently. After a long few minutes, Ned whispered, "There are some really broken people in the world."

Elly nodded softly, and whispered back, "Yeah, there are."

"I'm afraid I'm one of them," Ned whispered back.

Elly's fingers stopped mid-stroke through Ned's hair. "How do you figure?" he asked.

Ned started slowly, a little more than a whisper. "I feel like two different people sometimes, and I don't understand it. I feel like I'm this big uber-dork, and then this confident, demanding strategist. It literally feels like a split personality sometimes, and it worries me. The day-to-day me is terrified of taking a life, and the other me has already done it. The day to day me can barely look Vance in the eye, and the other one works beside him in MTAC, sometimes even saying things to contradict him. And I know you guys see it too. I know there's my normal side, and the MTAC me, and then that part of me you call my Encyclopedia Ned side. It's all a lot to digest."

Elly was taken aback by the admission. He kind of wished Greg was there to tell Ned he wasn't insane, but when he put it like that, he felt a kernel of worry himself. He shook it off. His partner needed him to comfort him right now, and that's what he was going to do.

"My love," he started, resuming his stroking through Ned's hair. "You've been going through some major changes and growth this year. You're discovering facets of your personality you've been too afraid to share with the world. Eventually, these different pieces will blend together, and instead of it feeling like you're jumping tracks, it will be more subtle, like switching lanes. You _do_ have different personalities, but it's already starting to blend into this concoction that is Ned Dorneget. This case has proved it.

"You have been so caught up in things that you haven't seen what I've seen, and I bet what Greg has seen. You've flowed in and out of Encyclopedia Ned, in and out of the Special Agent Ned Dorneget, and in and out of the compassionate Dorney that we all love. It took all three of those Neds to make the man who sat across from that monster tonight and do what you did. It took your compassion for Bishop not to kill him and to get the answers that you knew that she needed. It took Agent Dorneget to keep a cool head and stay focused on the mission. It took Encyclopedia Ned to know the questions to ask and to focus on that rather than the gross and perverse aspects of what you were being told. Without all of you, there's no way you would've been able to get through that. And it was horrible, and confusing, but I'm proud of you."

Ned turned to lay his chin on Elly's chest and look up at him. "Thank you," he said softly.

"You're not broken, Ned. Not any more than the rest of us at least. And most certainly not in the ways that Jake is broken. You're just experiencing some growing pains."

"Are you going to love me when all three of my personalities merge and blend into one Ned?" Ned's eyes were so sad that it broke Elly's heart.

"Oh, baby. I already love all three Neds, and I'll love whatever pieces you decide to keep when you merge all three together."

Ned gave him a small smile. "I'm glad, because all three Neds love you more than anything in the world."

Elly smiled brightly at him. "Good, because I'd be sad to lose any of them. And honestly, I think we've seen a fourth Ned through this case."

"Oh?" Ned asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah! There's now Sassy Ned! The King of Sarcasm!"

Ned laughed outright.

"You've thrown some serious sass out there, and right in front of Vance. And he's not done anything more than raise an eyebrow at you. You're like, Super Sassy Ned, and I think he actually likes it. I mean, I think we all really like it. It's pretty hilarious, and he's always totally on point!"

Ned laughed and buried his face in Elly's ribs. Elly smiled broadly and continued running his hand through Ned's hair. They both calmed to a happier state than they were when they got home and snuggled in for a nap together. Elly reached for the throw blanket on the back of the couch and covered Ned up with it. It wasn't long before they were breathing evenly together in a deep and comfortable sleep.

********WDYG?********

Tim, Elly and Greg drove together to the NSA. It wasn't a bad drive that early in the morning, but it was still dark outside, and they struggled not to let their moods reflect that.

Elly had noticed that Greg wasn't focused, and finally brought it up.

"You okay, Greg?" he asked from the backseat.

The other man sighed. "Not really, but I guess I should confess my sins." He looked from Elly to Tim, then out the window. "I called the boss."

"What?" Tim asked. "Why did you do that?!"

"It was personal. Tiff and I got into it this morning… and I needed to talk."

Tim nodded, coming down off the emotional cliff he was ready to throw Greg off of for the moment.

"Dude, what's going on?" Elly asked, somewhat hurt he didn't come to him, but understanding at the same time because he knew he had to make Ned his priority, and Greg would've known that too.

"She's losing it. And that makes me lose it. And I'm afraid we're going to lose baby girl, and… she threw the fucking alarm clock at me this morning. Like, barely missed, shattered against the wall, destroyed the damn thing kinda threw it at me."

"Holy shit, man! That's not cool!" Elly said, his jaw slightly dropped.

"Yeah, Greg. That's not right," Tim said, trying to give him a sympathetic look and then focus on the road again.

"I know. And when this case is over, we're getting help. I can't keep going on like this. But I needed to talk to Tony. He and Gibbs are just so…" He shook his head and looked out the window with a sigh.

"I know," Elly said with an understanding nod.

"Me, too," Tim said, sparing another glance at him. Greg nodded back, still not looking at them.

"I feel better about it through. It was actually Gibbs that jumped into the conversation when I didn't even realize he was listening, and he said something that felt… personal. It was kind of a big deal to me to hear him say what he said, and I feel so… cared for. You know? Like they just make me feel like I'm not alone in _anything_ anymore. I'm never going to have to be alone again. I've got you guys, and them, and Shane, and I know, I just _know_ , that Tiffany and I will fix things as long as I've got their support."

"I know that feeling, too," Tim said with a small smile. "They support Abby and I through all of our ups and downs. Ducky, too. We're lucky."

"That we are," Greg said.

"I don't even need to tell you guys how much they've supported Ned and me. I mean… damn."

They pulled into the parking lot of the NSA building and stopped at the gate to give their badges to the guard. Hadley was going to have their passage cleared for them by the time they got there, and they were glad to see it was taken care of as they soon made their way towards the building through the parking lot.

They went inside to find Hadley waiting for them in the lobby.

"Hey gentlemen, follow me," he said, waving them over to him. They headed for him, Elly shifting his laptop bag over his shoulder so it crossed his chest and swung behind him.

They followed Hadley towards an escalator that gave them a great view of the parking lot as they rode it up. It made Tim feel like they were in a mall more than a government building, and he took in the sights around him that Elly and Greg had been able to see when they were there earlier in the case.

They were led to a large room with multiple desks and a conference table in the middle of it. Whiteboards and TVs lined the walls. Some were being used as monitors to beam computers to that were running searches.

"This is our situation room," Hadley explained. "Took us a while to get it set up, but everyone working this case is in this room. Now that Jake has been captured and interrogated we've switched tactics. We're checking all of the files he's accessed and searching for the people on the list he provided. I need to tell you that the data scrub is our first priority. We need to know if he's accessed sensitive information to protect national security. The search for the other members of The Children is secondary."

"Understandable," Tim answered. "Are you finding anything of concern in the data scrub?"

"Not really. Nothing unexpected at least. We've been able to track some of the deep web sites that he frequented though. It's taken a lot, but we're getting in."

"Can you share that information with Dorneget?" Tim asked.

Elly and Greg shared a look of concern at the thought of Ned having to sift through websites that showed people being murdered and tortured. At the same time, he knew that Ned's infamous access to prohibited message boards and other deep web sites was in line with the request. Elly made a mental note to take over this research as soon as possible.

They spent the next hour touring the room and getting acquainted with each person and what they were focused on. Tim and Parke focused on associating with those looking for their pseudo-terrorists and kidnappers. Elly focused on finding out how the data scrubbers were going about it. As he watched he got an idea. If they had the deep web sites that Jake had been using, he'd probably be able to track down X through their user list. He sat with the analyst that was focusing on locating Jake's deep web interactions and opened his laptop, taking notes.

"Elly?" Greg said softly. His blue eyes looked up to meet Greg's brown. "It's 0600." Elly nodded. They had agreed to be out of there by 0615, the time they estimated for Vance to piss off the NSA director and get them kicked out or have their cooperation interrupted.

Elly smiled at the analyst he was sitting with, a middle-aged woman who wasn't exactly taken by him, but enjoyed having knowledgeable company. "We're going to have to leave soon," he let her know, letting regret color his voice. "If you had to give me any advice on what to look for to track these guys, what would it be?"

She was somewhat taken aback by the question. "Um, I guess I'd say that you need to cast your nets deeper, not wider in this case. This is a very specialized dimension, and in order to find what we're finding you either have to have access to everyone in the country's web searches, or you'd have to follow someone in through the wormhole. It's much easier to follow someone in."

"Do you have any suggestions on who?" he asked, trying to project innocence and lightheartedness as if though this information was easily available and not sensitive at all.

"Um…" She chewed her bottom lip as she typed in a few things and investigated her screen and a list that was now scrolling. "Try going through that second site I gave you, and track IP 202.1578942.33, screenname ShineeToyz." Elly typed that into his notes and nodded.

"Why them?" he asked casually.

"They have ties to a number of these sites. Comments a lot and gets replies. Very active for a long time. Daily user. Seems to know everyone."

"Have you ever seen a screenname of DevilsKiss999?" he asked.

"Yeah, that rings a bell. Let me see. Ah! There. Associated with the same site as Shinee, and looks like… yeah. Three others. Numbers 2, 4, 7 and 11 on your list," she said, looking up at him. "Who's that?"

"A screenname offered up by Jake," Elly replied. "He said that's who reached out to him to invite him to run The Children."

"Oh! That's something I wasn't told. I will definitely switch tracks and see what I can find through him. If he's got ties to the handler, we can try to track the big fish, which is much more important that the brats, as we've come to ever so affectionately refer to them."

Elly chuckled. "The brats. I like it!" He looked up at the screen and quickly typed the IP address of DevilsKiss999, though it wasn't offered up. "Well, we're going to head out. I appreciate everything you've shown me. It's given me some great ideas! Good luck with everything." He closed his laptop and slipped it into his bag, getting to his feet and offering a handshake to the woman.

"Likewise, Agent Critten," she said. "We'll get 'em."

"Yeah, we will."

Elly smiled and turned to leave. It was a nice feeling that she didn't say that in a competitive way, and he didn't mean it in one either. They were both on the same sides of this battle, even if they were there for different focuses. He met up with Greg and Tim at the door. Hadley came up behind them and led them back out.

"Too bad you couldn't have stayed longer," he said.

"Yeah," Elly said, taking the lead next to him. "We need to get back though to deal with our director and whatever his directions may be after he talks to your director. I have a feeling we'll be set to task. I got some great information and ideas from working with Marilyn though. Was able to share a piece of information with her that she didn't know as well about the screenname Jake provided us as his initial contact with the group. She's going to track that bastard like a hawk on a mouse. He's a goner."

"Damn!" Hadley exclaimed under his breath. "I'd completely forgotten about that! I'm glad you remembered. She should've known that last night. I was just too much in my head about the whole Jake thing."

"It's all good," Elly reassured with a smile as they stepped off the escalator. "She knows now and she's going to get to work on it. If she can trace it back to the handler and the handler to ISIS, all the better!"

"If anyone can, it's her," Hadley said, stopping at the entrance. The three men stopped with him and took turns thanking him and shaking his hand.

"We'll be in touch!" Elly reassured with a smile. "Let us know if Marilyn cracks the code! I'd love to get that good news!"

"Will do!" Hadley said, then the three left the building.

They walked silently to the car, and once they got in it and all of the doors were closed, Tim looked at Elly who had taken shotgun, and then at Greg in his rearview. "What do you think?" he asked.

"I think we've got some work to do," Greg said, his eyes meeting Tim's in the mirror.

"What did you find?" Elly said, slipping his seatbelt on.

"They started triangulating the data from the apartment, the lumber yard, and marina where Davis was snatched and looking for any cell phones that were active in all three areas. There were no calls made that overlap all three places, but there were data pings."

"Text messages then," Elly said. "Or the kik app they were using."

"Exactly," Tim said as he turned the ignition over and headed for the entrance.

"You get the info?" Elly asked.

Tim looked in the rearview. Elly looked over his shoulder at Greg to see him copying something written on his arm into a little memo pad.

"Did you really smuggle data out of the NSA just now by writing it on your arm?" Elly asked with a chuckle.

"Well, I asked if I could have the information emailed to me," Tim said, and the analyst was incredibly skeptical about even talking to us, nonetheless sharing the specific information.

"But I was standing behind them, and I got busy scribbling," Greg said, rolling his sleeve back down and rebuttoning it as they came to the guard gate to be let out.

Elly laughed and grinned. "I love you guys," he said, continuing to laugh.

Greg smiled at him as he looked over his shoulder at him again. "Teamwork makes the dream work!"

"Hell yeah!"

********WYDG?********

Ned was dressed in his favorite suit. He felt like it was imperative that he exude confidence for this call, though he knew he wasn't going to be the one doing most of the talking, if any. This was a Director to Director discussion. He knew that this wasn't the same as the calls he'd been on so far in this case. There were serious politics at play here. He was there to learn, offer information as needed, and maybe one or two questions on behalf of the team if the opportunity presented itself.

He stood next to Vance, a notebook in one hand, the other in his pocket. He felt solid. Having a little time to reconnect with Elly had done him a world of good. Waking up to his heartbeat under his ear was the best medicine he could've asked for to cure him of the nightmare the previous night's interrogation had been.

"You ready?" Vance asked.

"I believe so. Anything you need from me?" he asked.

"You'll get away with a lot more than I will," Vance said. "That still doesn't mean you'll get away with a lot. What questions do you have?"

"For Spots?" Ned asked. Vance nodded. "I'd like to know what he has been able to ascertain about the safety of the Iraqi women. I want to know if this group is still looking for them. I also want to know what they know about the Bright Jihad, if anything, specifically if they know what kinds of weapons this guy in California has. I want to know what spooked Spots about this so badly that he ran off to Spain and had everyone meet him there. That's all big picture though. Specific to our case, I want to know if there's anything that we need to know about Piper and both Bishops that we don't know. If we can find out about the weapons guy in California, maybe we can use him somehow to track this X guy down."

"Is that all?" Vance asked.

"That's all that I'd have the politics to ask," Ned said.

"What do _really_ want to ask?" Vance inquired.

Ned smirked. "I want to know what the hell he was thinking by leaving his agency unattended during a crisis like this. I want to know how well he knew Jake and whether or not he's somehow aware of his predilections, and I want to know what he plans on doing to support Bishop now that her NSA lawyer of a soon-to-be-ex-husband is about to face the death penalty. And I want to know if he plans on trying to offer some kind of plea deal with him for information, because if they think they are going to make any kind of deal to go soft on this bastard to get information out of him, I'll go downstairs to holding and take him out myself."

Vance raised an eyebrow at his sudden passion. "I just might let you," Vance said under his breath as the screen lit up bright blue, the sign that they were trying to connect to the call. "Let's do this." He looked once more time at Ned. "For the record, I want the same answers."

Ned nodded once, plastering his game face on.

The screen changed to a man sitting at a desk. He looked haggard and tired, and Vance and Ned were both surprised by that, having assumed the delay in their call was because Spots had wanted to sleep first.

"Director Vance," the man greeted solemnly.

"Director Spots," Vance greeted in return. "I'm glad you found the time to talk with us. With me is Special Agent Ned Dorneget, one of the agents on the case and the one who interrogated your man Jake Bishop."

"Special Agent Dorneget," he greeted with a nod.

"Sir," Ned greeted with a nod in return. It was both formal and casual at the same time.

"First, let me apologize for not being able to be reached until now," Spots said, throwing both men for a loop. "I currently have a dozen dignitaries in my small chateau here in Madrid. This is supposed to be my sanctuary, but for the moment it's a safehouse. And getting twelve people from such different backgrounds to share a space and sleep on air mattresses is… well let's just say people are ridiculous."

Vance smiled at him. "I would hate to be in your shoes. Why don't you explain why you're in that predicament though?"

Spots sighed. "It's a long story, but Piper was not only an NSA analyst- one of the best analysts we've ever had- but also filled a crucial role in information exchange between the US intelligence agencies and the intelligence agencies of our allies. He has exchanged information between our country and allies on trips to various islands for years so that these people never had to come onto US mainland where they wouldn't necessarily be safe. Plus, Piper simply enjoyed beach vacations. It was a great front for his work.

"Many Americans have no idea about the types of programs we have with other countries and what kind of information exchanges we do on a regular basis. When Piper was found dead, we activated an emergency protocol and gathered everyone he's met with in the past five years here in Spain. We have Iraqi and Afghani intelligence, the leader of the Uzbekistan Democratic Movement, Oman, Liberia… you get the picture. He's met with all of these people over the past five years, and until we knew the reason he was killed, any of their information was vulnerable. Hadley said that you know what information they were going after."

"Yes," Vance said. "It's the information shared with Iraqi Intelligence about a group of women the CIA were going to train."

Spots nodded. "That's what he said. I've informed Hahmar. She's getting the women relocated."

"Good," Vance said. "What I'd like to know is what's so special about them? I understand that they were going to be spies, but why would so many people go through all of this trouble to stop that from happening?"

Ned raised an eyebrow in thought about how that was a question for the jugular he wasn't going to ask.

Spots looked thoughtful for a moment, then his expression changed to resolution. "They're all members of clans and families that we need them to spy on. Families and clans that may or may not have ties to ISIS and other unpleasant groups. They were going to go back to their families and work as double agents."

Vance nodded, and Ned schooled his expression to not give away his own feelings about that.

"What I need to know is what happened with Bishop to make him turn against us," Spots said.

Vance didn't immediately reply, so Ned stepped in. He remembered what Greg had told Ellie the night before and used it to explain.

"Jake Bishop had devolved into a sadistic personality disorder. His actions weren't based on actual terrorism, but instead on what running The Children of the Prophet gave him access to- specifically victims that he could torture and murder for his pleasure. He wasn't an Islamic terrorist. He was a sadist. And it all began with video in a deposition for an NSA case he came across that unlocked that part of him. He spiraled into the disorder and was consumed by it. He's tortured 29 people in the past two years if you include our victims. And that's only the 29 that we've located."

" _29_?" Spots asked in disbelief.

"Yes," Ned said. "He was paid in at least two million dollars in cash, and trips to places around the country where people were waiting for him to take out his sadistic urges on. He was also provided a protégé who helped him with these murders, and with which a sexual relationship began. The two of them have been running _two_ homegrown terrorist outfits- The Children of the Prophet and The Only. The Children are based on the east coast, mainly in New York, and The Only is based out of Los Angeles. These groups are made up of young adults, kids even, that are disgruntled and misplacing their anger in this cause. They have killed a few people, tried to set a church on fire, and most recently shot an FBI agent."

"Damn it," Spots said, cracking his knuckles in what Ned recognized as a nervous habit.

"He admitted in his interrogation that he didn't actually care about the organization or it's cause. He didn't even seem to really be keeping up with the information he was supposed to be indoctrinating the group with. His sadism had taken precedent in his life, and everything else was falling to the wayside. His main objective was torturing and murdering people and maintaining his relationship with his protégé."

"How did you figure out it was him?" Spots asked, defeat in his voice.

Ned felt his eyebrow raise as he realized that he hasn't been communicating very well with Hadley if he didn't know.

"You _are_ aware that Jake Bishop is Elenore Bishop's husband, right? Piper's partner?" Ned asked, just a slight edge to his voice.

Spot's jaw dropped against his own accord. "I wasn't aware. I'd heard of Ellie Bishop, and how she was going to take Piper's place one day, but I didn't realize Jake Bishop was her husband. I hadn't put the two together."

"Well, she is. And she went home to get some rest while helping us with the case, only to walk in on Jake talking to his handler on the phone. She revealed him to us immediately."

"Is she being questioned as well?" Spots asked.

Ned set his jaw and was grateful with Vance took over. "She's been a major part of our investigation, serving alongside our teams here at NCIS. She's a victim in this, not a suspect. She's currently in protective custody with one of our agents."

"Why is that?" Spots asked.

Ned jumped back in. "Because she was her husband's next target, and we believe that she may be in danger."

"Oh."

"Yeah," Ned said. He closed his mouth before he could say anything else, because he had some choice words right at the tip of his tongue that he knew Vance wouldn't appreciate him sharing at the moment, no matter how much Elly thought Vance enjoyed "Sassy Ned".

Vance turned his questions on Spot. "Have you ever heard of something called The Bright Jihad?"

Spot frowned and shook his head. "No, I haven't. What is it?"

"It's the name of the plan of action these groups are supposed to be carrying out. There's a weapons dealer in California they were supposed to torture in order to get access to his cache, and that was supposed to be used somehow. We need to know what types of weapons they are, and what this Bright Jihad is."

"Just a minute," Spots said, then got to his feet and left the room.

"You good?" Vance asked.

Ned took a deep breath and let it out. "Yeah, I'm good."

Vance only nodded back.

Spots came back into the room with an attractive older woman. "Gentlemen, this is Milaj Hahmar."

"Director Hahmar," Vance greeted. "I'm Director Leon Vance with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in the United States. We've been working the case of NSA Piper's murder."

Ned offered a greeting as well, only he did so in Arabic. Hahmar's eyes widened slightly, and she focused on Ned versus Vance.

" _[They tell me that Mark Piper is dead. What happened? Who is responsible?]"_ Hahmar asked, her face pulled in a pained expression.

"Sorry, gentlemen. Her English isn't very good. It's made things interesting."

"Not a problem," Vance said.

" _[He was killed by a man working for an ISIS based handler, though he wasn't actually a terrorist himself. He was a murderer using ISIS as a front to commit his murders],"_ Ned explained.

"What is she asking?" Vance asked quietly.

"She wanted to know who killed Piper," he answered quietly back.

" _[What do you know about his plans?]"_ she asked.

Ned thought for a moment about what to reveal to her. She was an ally, but she wasn't a part of the investigation. _"[He was supposed to run a US based terrorist group, but it was really just a bunch of kids that were angry and confused. They were being asked to carry out something called The Bright Jihad. Does that mean anything to you?]"_

" _[No, it doesn't. What can you tell me about it?]"_

" _[Not much unfortunately. They were supposed to torture a man in our state of California, on the west coast of the country, to find out the location of a weapons cache and use it to do something. We don't have any details. Neither does the man that was supposed to be leading the organization- the man that killed Piper. He's not in his right mind.]"_

" _[Agent Dorneget, none of them ever are.]"_

" _[This is true,]"_ Ned said back with a small smile. He liked this woman. She was direct, but a little sassy, and he related to that. _"[Let me translate for them.]"_ He turned to Vance and let him know what they'd just said. Both men nodded. He then turned back to the woman. _"[Ma'am, what can you tell me about your last meeting with Piper?]"_

Hahmar sighed and tossed her head to the side a bit and then looked back at him. _"[It was half a year ago. He was a complete gentleman. We had dinner together, and then took a walk on the beach, which is where we exchanged information about your intelligence agency being willing to train our recruits. We wanted to be away from everyone and the ocean would drown out our voices from any listening devices. To anyone who watched us, it would have looked like a courting. He even reached out to hold my hand at one point and discreetly exchanged an SD card with the information I needed on it. It was a lovely evening. We were going to meet again this past week, but he wasn't there at our rendezvous point. I looked for him, and when he didn't show up, I thought he'd been spooked, so I left the country immediately. I made arrangements to move the women we'd discussed last trip, and then received the call from Director Spots' people saying we were activating the protocol to come to Spain. I feel foolish being here.]"_

" _[It's very good you're there. If you were within reach, you could already be dead. They know who you are. If you would've stayed on the island…]"_

" _[I am in danger at all times, Agent. I'm the first female leader of Iraqi Intelligence. Not only that, but I was a spy my entire life, unlike the previous leaders who are all military. I am used to it.]"_

" _[Yes ma'am, but you're also now a political figure in this position. It means playing the political game, not the spy game. A blight to all of us who have to learn to play it, I assure you, but a necessary evil.]"_

She offered him a smile. _"[Indeed. I will look into this Bright Jihad, and I will mourn Mark.]"_

" _[Thank you, ma'am. I do have one more concern."_ She looked back up at him _. "[One of the women of the group was pregnant apparently with a US Marine's baby. Were you aware of that?]"_

" _[We did have a young woman in the group turn up pregnant. If you know who the father is, that could help get her safely out of the country. She's in a dangerous position.]"_

Ned shook his head. _"[He was killed. Tortured by the same man that killed Piper. Is there anything we can do for her?]"_

" _[That is bad news. I am not sure what can be done now.]"_

Ned thought about Amira's mom and the group she was in and bit his lip. He knew that he could tell her about them and neither of the other men would have to know, so he bit the bullet.

" _[There is a group here in the D.C. area that I am familiar with. They help Muslim refugees. I am sure they would be willing to help her. You just need to get her here. If you want more information, email me. Spots has my email.]"_

Hahmar looked at him thoughtfully _. "[You are a kind man. I will be in touch.]"_ She nodded at him, then turned to leave the room.

"Okay, what just happened?" Spots asked.

"Well, she remembers Mark Piper fondly, and when she showed up at their meeting place this past week and he wasn't there, she knew something wasn't right, so she got the hell out of dodge. She immediately moved the women. She knows nothing about the Bright Jihad, but is going to go look into it for us. She's not happy with being locked away in hiding." He turned to Vance. "She said that she was a spy her whole career and that she's the first woman to run the agency, so she's used to the danger."

He raised an eyebrow at Vance, who raised one back. They looked back at Spots.

"I will set the analysts to look into this Bright Jihad. I'm not sure what we're going to find, but we'll start scanning the chatter."

"Good," Vance said. "Our agents have been at your building for the past hour or so working with your analysts. We're going after the bastards that killed Piper and our Marines, and then we're getting our hands out of this mess."

"What are you going to do with Bishop?" Spots asked.

"We're going after the death penalty. Nothing less is good enough. To see the gruesome ways he tortured and mutilated his victims… he's not getting any leniency," Ned said, his confidence on full volume.

"Understandable," Spots said.

"Would you like a copy of his interrogation?" Vance asked.

"Yes, please."

"We'll be happy to send it over."

"Sir," Ned said before they could lose his attention. "I'm very concerned about the wellbeing of Ellie Bishop. What is your plan to assist her?"

Spots sighed. "I'm not really sure what we _can_ do. Her husband was a treasonous traitor. We have to be very careful what we do."

"Her _husband_ was the traitor, sir. Not her. She's been nothing but an exemplary analyst and support in his arrest. She's devastated right now."

"Understandably. I'm not sure what's possible, but I will look into it."

"I'd appreciate that," Ned said with a nod.

"Have a good day gentlemen. I'm sure we'll be in touch soon."

"I'm sure," Vance said. "Thank you for meeting with us.'

The screen went dark and Vance turned to Ned. "So, what _else_ did she say?"

Ned looked directly into Vance's eyes without blinking. "She knew one of the women was pregnant and asked if we could get the father to get her to the States. I informed her that he was killed as well. She said that the woman was in a dangerous position. I suggested she get her to DC to let The Epiphany help her and told her to email me for more details."

"Be very careful how much you divulge to her. Never tell her the name of the organization or it's locale. Help the woman if you'd like, but remember that Hahmar is the director of a national intelligence agency. Information is her life."

Ned nodded. "I'll tread lightly, sir. Thank you."

Vance nodded. "If only Leyla were still around, she'd make a great ally for the woman. It's a damn shame she's not."

Ned nodded again. "Yeah, it is." They headed for the door with Ned lost in thought.

********WDYG?********

Jethro took Tony's hand across the table. "You okay?" he asked.

Tony smiled at him. "Yeah, just thinking about Greg."

"He'll be okay," Jethro reassured. "We'll be there when he needs us, and things will get better."

Tony nodded. "I know. I appreciate you speaking up last night. It meant a lot."

Jethro shrugged. "I care about them, too. Your guys are just as much a part of our family as my team is. We're just going to have to make sure we include Parke in on things more often. Dorney and Critten are always around, and I imagine Parke will be more now, too. Not a bad thing at all."

"Your words carry so much weight. It was important what you said."

Jethro gave Tony a sad smile. "And it was true. There's nothing like holding your child for the first time. The thing is that the first time we held Amira after she became our child it…" Jethro shook his head slightly.

"Was heartbreaking," Tony filled in. Jethro nodded slowly. Tony's voice was quiet as he shared his thoughts. "I remember things about that day. Like when Amira and I were watching cartoons while we waited for you to get home. I thought about how she'd come home for the first time just then, and she didn't know it yet. And holding her tiny hand in the car after you told me Leyla was gone. Her nails digging into me because she was so afraid. I thought, I'm holding my daughter's hand now, and it hit me like someone had slammed me in the chest with a truck. It was profound."

Jethro looked down at their entwined hands, then sat back and sighed. "I miss her."

"Amira or Leyla?" Tony asked.

"Both," Jethro said with a smirk. "But I meant Amira."

"Aha! See! I knew I wasn't the only sentimental fool amongst us!"

"Never said you were," Jethro said with a sheepish chuckle.

"But I'm also glad we're here together. It's beautiful." Tony turned his view from Jethro to the water of the cove next to them. They were at a café near the sound. Mount Vesuvius was not far and they had a beautiful view. They were planning on going to visit it tomorrow, but today they were exploring the piers. They'd tried little bits of food here and there, and they'd watched the ferry come to and fro. The weather was perfect with a gentle breeze off the water that kept things nice and comfortable. They'd walked for over a mile down the stretch of docks, stopping here and there to take in a shop, a chapel, a vendor. It was a great way to spend their day. Now they were sitting in the café and trying to decide what to do with their evening.

"I need to remember to keep taking photos that Amira might want to see. And Sierra too for that matter. I promised them a slideshow tonight."

"Yeah, you did. We should remember to get one of the two of us together somewhere so we have a mantel memory," Jethro suggested, making Tony raise an eyebrow at the unusual request.

"I think we could do that," he said with a smile. "Maybe tonight we can do that restaurant the lady in the bakery told us about for dinner."

"The one you said has a dock patio?"

Tony nodded. "A little romantic nighttime lighting, a good bottle of wine, good food…"

"The stars and a breeze off the water," Jethro said with a smile.

Tony's eyebrows rose as he nodded. "Something to set the mood."

"The mood for a slideshow with our daughter and her babysitter?" Jethro asked with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

Tony laughed. "True. We may be able to squeeze round one in before that."

"If you're having a bottle of wine before that you're going to fall straight to sleep afterwards. And I'm not giving them a slideshow while you snore next to me."

Tony reached over and gave Jethro a slight shove on the shoulder, which made the older man laugh.

"In that case, let's pick up a bottle of wine to enjoy during the slideshow. I can have a glass during dinner, then another while we're giving them the tour of Napoli via bad photos and be nice and relaxed by time we're truly alone."

"Sounds like a plan. I know we agreed on keeping our sleep schedule as close to eastern time as possible while we're here, but with our trip to the mountain tomorrow we're going to have to get up early. Probably a good idea not to drink too much tonight. We're not going to get much sleep."

"True. And we need to let Sierra know tonight that tomorrow's call will be early since we're probably not going to be able to stay up until 2AM to make it. We'd warned Ned and Elly that there would be an early night, but she wasn't supposed to have Amira this long."

"Ahhh yes."

They sat there for another five minutes while they took in the view. "You ready to go find that bottle of wine?" Tony asked.

"Sure, let's go." They got up and pushed their chairs in, dropping off their cups at the counter for them to be cleaned, and headed for the street hand-in-hand.

********WDYG?********

It was a little after 0900 and Tim was clacking away at his computer, hoping that they would get a lead soon. He was chasing cell phone tower information left and right trying to track down the phones that had given off the pings with the NSA, but they were burn phones and they were encrypted, so it meant someone on their team knew what they were doing with tech. It was going to take a while.

Sommers and Ziva had joined them in the bullpen and were tracking down whatever they could on the children through tips that had been called in by people responding to the BOLO. Most of them were worthless, but they scoured them for any bit of truth. Ziva had also shared the video footage of Davis' kidnapping with Sommers and they kept playing it, hoping that one of them would catch something to flag their attention.

Greg had gone into interrogation to replay the conversation and see if he could pick up anything from it that they had missed. He wasn't finding anything more than reassurance that there were worse things in the world than his pregnant wife throwing an alarm clock at him.

Elly was working his magic on trying to track the usernames of the deep web sites that he'd been given. He followed them into the dark abyss of the deep web, peeling back the sites layer by layer like the onions they were. Every time he thought he was almost there he fell through another trap door and found himself chasing another ghost. It was frustrating.

Ned had the worst task of all. He was trolling the message boards of the sites they knew about from both Jake and the NSA and was trying to figure out who X was by the messages. He was sure he would have to bleach his brain afterwards. Though he wasn't finding any live feed videos, he found the comments left behind by them and was reading through them to try to pinpoint anything that might help in their pursuit. It was just as damaging as listening to Jake tell his story. The things people were saying on the boards, oftentimes encouraging remarks for the live sessions they'd viewed, were beyond disturbing and he wanted to get away from it but knew he couldn't. He knew Elly was worried about him doing it because he kept catching concerned glances, and though a part of him thought it was sweet, another part of him was annoyed by it. It wasn't helping.

Ned's phone rang in his pocket and he pulled it out in frustration. Who was calling him with everyone that could be calling him sitting in the bullpen? He saw the NCIS switchboard number on the caller ID and blinked.

"Hello?" he answered in confusion.

"Agent Dorneget?" came Evelyn's voice.

"Oh, hey! What's up?" he asked.

"Can you come up to MTAC?"

"Sure. Is everything okay?" he asked.

"That's for you to decide. You've got a call."

"Oh, I'll be right there." He hung up and looked at his phone.

"What's up?" Elly asked.

"I have a call in MTAC. Evelyn didn't say who it was. She was acting weird."

"Want company? I could use a minute away."

"Sure," Ned said. After all, Elly was technically his superior right now. It made sense that he was aware of anything strange going on.

They made their way up to MTAC and scanned in. As soon as Ned's eyes fell on the screen he froze and Elly ran into him.

"What the hell?" Ned said quietly, the wave of anxiety washing over him. He instinctively reached back for Elly's hand and received it.

"What's wrong, honey?" Elly whispered.

"That's Andy," he said, looking at an exhausted man with red eyes on the screen.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Elly asked, staring at the screen with his jaw dropped at the audacity of the man on the screen to use MTAC to get to Ned. He felt a surge of anger and was about to march down there and give him a piece of his mind, but Ned tightened his grip around his hand to stop him.

"Wait, Elly. Something's not right."

Elly looked at him hesitantly and then looked back at the screen feeling conflicted. Ned took a deep breath and walked hand in hand with Elly out of the shadows until they were in view of the camera.

"Ned?" Andy said, his voice breaking.

"Andy?" Ned asked. "What are you doing?"

"I… I tried to help," he said.

"What did you do?" Ned asked, his MTAC persona taking over.

"I looked into that organization you asked me about."

"Fuck, Andy. Please tell me you didn't get involved." Ned shook his head.

"I did." Andy shook his head in return. "I wanted to help you. I thought if I did… Well, maybe I'd get to try to talk to you again."

"Andy, I want you to meet my fiancé, Elly."

Elly smiled at Ned, then smirked at the screen. He almost felt sorry for the man in front of him. He went from looking bad to devastated and hopeless.

"Oh. Hi."

"Hi." Elly's eyes bored into the man's on the screen.

"What did you do?" Ned asked, his voice stern.

Andy looked up and blinked before running his hands down his face. "I got in over my head. I tracked the kids down."

"And?" Ned asked.

"They're all dead."

" _How_ did they die?" Ned asked cautiously.

"Someone… I'd say they killed them, but they did much more than that. There were eight of them, and it was… a bloodbath."

"Damn," Ned said, looking at Elly. "How much do you wanna bet it's X?"

Elly nodded. "He sounds pissed."

"X?" Andy asked.

"Yeah," Ned said. "We have the leader of the organization in custody. He's not a jihadist at all, but a total sadist that partnered with a 20-year-old man that calls himself X."

"And X is probably out there taking his revenge for our capture of his evil fuckbuddy," Elly added.

"A 20-year-old did all of that alone?" Andy asked in disbelief.

"Unless he's taken a protégé of his own," Elly posed.

"An eerie possibility," Ned said, chewing his lip for just a moment. He looked back at Andy. "What did you do? Did you bring in the LEOs?"

"That's what I mean about being in over my head. My superiors don't know where I am. The kids are in the next room. That's why I called."

"Goddamn it Andy! Where are you?"

"7219 Mango Street. There's an abandoned factory. I'm on the third floor."

"You need to get the hell out of there. If that guy can take out all of those kids, you're no match."

"Well, I don't' know about that…" Andy said uncomfortably. "Why do you care anyway?"

"Just because I don't want to be in a relationship with you doesn't mean that I want to find your dead body sliced up in some abandoned building!" Ned yelled. "Now get the hell out of there!"

"Are you coming?" Andy asked.

"No," Elly answered, putting his agent hat on. "Another team is coming. Ned will be needed here to interrogate Sadist Number One so we can track down Sadist Number Two."

"What should I do?" Andy asked.

"I don't know," Ned said. "How about butting the hell out of our case?"

Andy looked dejected. "Fine. One more thing though."

"What?"

"This X left a message."

"Let me guess- it was carved into a body?" Ned answered dripping with sarcasm.

"Yep. It said 'He's mine.'"

"Great. We just became targets," Elly said.

"No, _Ellie_ just became a target," Ned said, turning to him with wide eyes.

"Shit!" Elly said, eyes widening back in realization.

"We need to get to her," Ned said, pulling Elly towards the door.

"Ned!" Andy shouted.

"Text it to me! We've got to go!" Ned shouted back.

Ned finally let Elly's hand drop as they left the room. They hurried down the steps and Ned headed for Tim.

"Andy just contacted Ned in MTAC," Elly started. "He's crashed our investigation."

"Crashed is an understatement," Ned said with a frustrated shake of his head.

"He's sitting in an abandoned building with the bodies of eight members of The Children dead in the next room that X has killed," Elly continued.

"What?" Tim said, getting to his feet with a deathly blank expression.

"I'd asked if he had any information on The Children of the Prophet last Saturday on a whim. I didn't know he was going to butt in." Ned was a little unnerved by Tim's blankness.

"McGee," Elly said, his voice suddenly authoritative. "X is going to go after Ellie. He left a message on one of the bodies- "he's mine". You know what that means."

Ziva had joined them in the middle of the bullpen, and she put her phone to her ear to try to call Bishop. "She's not answering me."

Ned pulled his phone out and tried. "Nope, me neither."

Everyone looked to Tim for direction. He felt a sudden resolve and ground his teeth a moment before he started giving out orders. "Ziva, Elly, Sommers and I will go find her. Dorney, I want you and Parke to go get whatever you can out of Crow. I don't care how you have to do it."

"Not a problem," Ned said, turning to go find Greg.

Tim sat at his computer for a moment and ran a trace on Bishop's phone. "Her phone is still at your place, Ziva."

Elly ran to his desk and grabbed his stuff. He met Tim, Sommers and Ziva at the elevator. Ziva was trying to reach Bishop again, calling first her cell, then her home phone, just in case her cell was on silent. Still no answer.

"This isn't good," Ziva said, speaking quietly.

"No, it's not," Tim said.

"We'll get her," Elly said as the elevator opened to the garage. "We have to."


	13. Chapter 13

_We're almost finished with the initial arc! This chapter is about resolution, but I need to warn you that it gets dark. There's no bypass for it, but there is a warning for when the darker stuff starts. It's all tied up into Ellie's capture, so you may need to just skim through it if that's not something you can handle. Thanks for the reviews! They keep me on task._

 **Chapter 13**

Ellie had showered for the second time since coming to Ziva's apartment. She kept thinking about how Jake had talked about making love to her all night while thinking about the torture video, and it made her feel gross. The thing was, she knew what night it was. She remembered the almost three weeks of celibacy and how she'd thought that something was wrong, that maybe Jake was cheating on her or something similar. She never in her wildest dreams thought that it was this. When the spell broke and they did resume carnal pleasures, it was normal. Then one night it was like something had caught fire in him, and it was mind-blowing. She could even remember thinking to herself that she wasn't sure what led up to that kind of sex, but if abstaining for a week or two now and then led to a night like that, she'd have to offer it up as a kind of tantric experiment.

She was glad there was only oatmeal and tea for breakfast, because she turned around and threw up in the toilet as that thought crossed her mind. She almost jumped back in the shower but decided that wasn't going to help anything and went to make some more tea. With a fresh cup in her hand she curled up on the couch.

Ziva had woken her up from a nightmare at about 0500. She was calling out in her sleep apparently. She felt bad for the force that she grabbed Ziva's wrist when she snapped awake, but the other woman was very understanding. She sighed and silently thanked Ziva again for being there and giving her the space she needed at the same time. She was going to come pick her up at lunch and they were going to go to her apartment to get her things and stop to pick up some more food.

Ellie agreed that she wouldn't go further than the corner store without letting Ziva know. They both felt really uneasy about her safety even though Jake was locked up. And although this X was still out there, he was most likely focused on the Bright Jihad or whatever nonsense. It was like there was a dark tension in the air though, and she would blame it on the fact that her husband just turned out to be a sadist, but Ziva was feeling it too, and wasn't afraid to admit it. It was only Ellie's insistence that Ziva go take these pricks out that had gotten her new friend to leave her alone.

She decided she was going to go stir crazy if she didn't get out of the apartment and do something, which made the corner store seem incredibly inviting. She got up, set her mug of tea on the counter, and grabbed her wallet. Ziva had given her the key to her apartment with the promise that she would call before she came back home so she knew to be expecting her.

When she finally walked out of the front of the apartment building and breathed in the fresh air, she was suddenly overcome by a surge of paranoia. She looked around, taking in everything she saw. The DC street was busy with a number of people walking up and down the walks, getting into their cars, waiting for a bus on a bench across the street, and going in and out of buildings.

She took a deep breath and told herself it was fine, that she was just nerve wracked, and to get to the corner and back. Her steps were fast, but her heart was beating faster. Once the door to the minimart shut behind her she felt much better. There were people in the store, but she was out of view of most of the public.

She grabbed a few types of drinks she liked, a big bag of Cheetos, and some popcorn. Stopping down a household aisle she grabbed a toothbrush, toothpaste, and something for her headache. For good measure she picked up some gummy worms, and then her attention was caught by the rack of magazines. She grabbed a couple of puzzle books, afraid that she was going to be sequestered in Ziva's apartment for the next four hours with nothing to do since she didn't have it in her to turn on her computer where all her research on Crow- Jake- was waiting.

The exchange with the cashier was brief, thankfully, and she carried her new belongings out the door. Her paranoia got the best of her and she pulled her phone out and pretended to call someone on it when she was actually taking video as she walked. She watched everyone around her with distinct suspicion as inconspicuously as possible. She opened the bottle of tea she had gotten and took a drink, giving her the ability to hide the shot she had of the people getting on the bus across the street. As it pulled away, she noticed that a young man with light blonde hair was still sitting there. He hadn't gotten on the bus. She glanced up at the sign though and saw that multiple number busses stopped there, so she took a breath and calmed down while telling herself he was just waiting for a different bus.

He looked up right as she was about to look away and raised an eyebrow at her staring. _Great,_ she thought. _Now he thinks_ I'm _the weirdo._

She made her way inside and up the stairs to the floor that Ziva's apartment was on. She was just turning off the video when her phone alerted her to low memory. She sighed and stuck the phone in her back pocket. _You're losing it,_ she told herself. Then she heard the stairwell door close around the bend from where she just came. She felt a sudden panic and pulled out the key, shoving it into the lock on the door, eager to get inside where it was safe. She knew that it was probably just one of Ziva's neighbors, but she felt all of her defenses rise in her body.

She'd finally gotten the door open, but as she stepped inside the key got jammed in the lock and she couldn't get it out. As her panicked fingers fumbled with it, a hand pressed on the door.

"Need a hand?"

Ellie looked up, her whole being getting ready to take on fight mode. In front of her was the young man from the bus bench. Before she could even react, he had lunged at her, holding a cloth over her mouth. She struggled, kicking and clawing, but it didn't take long for the chloroform to do its job, and she was limp in the man's arms.

He smiled viciously as he held her small limp body over one knee and kicked the door shut.

"Just like you told me to, Crow. Just like you told me to." He stared at Ellie's limp body on the floor in front of him and smirked. He unlocked his phone and sent the message to have Michael bring the van into the alley. A few minutes later he got the reply.

AfternoonDesolation: Coming up. What unit?

UntamedFury: 3A

There was a knock shortly after and X opened the door to a young man of barely 18 who was carrying a large blue bin almost as tall as him. He let him in with a sneer.

"That's a beautiful sight," Michael said with a sigh at the vision of Ellie laying prone on the floor.

"Yeah, it is. I wish Crow could've seen it." He used his phone to take a short video of her lying there. Michael took the lid off the bin, and X sat the phone down for a minute so the two of them could lift Ellie into it. They took perverse care with arranging her petite body to fit into the container, folding her arms and legs so that they were bent comfortably.

"Careful not to hurt her while she's asleep- she won't feel it," X instructed. "We want her to savor any pain we inflict on her. How are you feeling?" He looked at Michael to see his pants were tented. "Looks like you're feeling good." He smirked as he looked at the younger man.

"My heart is pounding! The rush… it's amazing. The things I want to do to her…"

"And you can do them all as soon as we get her to the spot and prepped."

"Thank you, sir," Michael said with a grin. He brushed his dark loose hair out of his face. He reached for the lid and snapped it on the bin as if though he was putting the unconscious woman in storage like a Christmas tree in January.

"Ready?" X asked. Michael nodded.

They lifted the bin, one on each side, and headed out the door. They sat it down in the hallway for a moment while X wiped down the doorknobs. He'd made sure not to touch anything in the apartment, just like Crow had always instructed him. In warehouses and abandoned buildings there usually weren't any chances of prints being taken, but in clean spaces like this apartment it was certain that prints would be lifted.

He left the door open, enjoying the idea of the taunt. He smirked to himself as he turned to pick up his end of the bin, imagining that whoever came to the rescue would find it like that and feel their heart stop. He especially liked the idea of possibly giving someone a genuine heart attack and dwelled on it as they carried their prey down to the van waiting for them in the alley.

They were loading her into the back of it when they heard a noise coming from inside.

"Damn!" X said as they took the lid off. "Almost ruined the whole damned thing!" He took his time groping Ellie's body as he coasted his hand along it looking for the phone. As he pulled it out of her back pocket it started ringing again. He squinted at the name.

"Hey Michael. Look up a Ned Dorneget to see if he's NSA. It's D-O-R-N-E-G-E-T." He waited a minute, and then saw a confused look on his new protégé's face. "What?"

"He's not NSA, but what's NCIS?" Michael asked, looking up at X.

"I think they're part military and part feds? I don't really get it. Some kind of cops in the Navy. I take it he's one of them?"

"Yeah."

"Then we need to go, because if he knows what's going down, we're in trouble. The NSA pipsqueaks we can handle. I'm not about to deal with any feds today. We have our mission to fulfill." He wiped Ellie's phone down and chucked it the twenty feet into the dumpster. "Though it was amazing torturing those Marines. Talking about a rush! Would love to get to do a fed one day."

They got in with X behind the wheel. "I've never used chloroform before, so I don't know if I gave her enough. Be ready to jump back there and dose her if needed."

Michael smiled broadly. "Gladly."

"You're so eager, and it's so hot. My very own little minion."

"What are we going to do to her? Tell me what I can expect," Michael asked with a happy sigh as X pulled out into traffic.

"First, we're going to make her understand just how dark our beloved Crow really was, and who he really belongs to. He's not only one of us, but our dark master. He belongs to us, and us to him. Then, we'll make her scream for us. Make her bleed. Can you smell it? I can almost smell it… the metallic tang of her blood." Michael groaned and rubbed his dick through his jeans. "Then we'll use her body for our pleasure as the life drains out of her. Her last breath is mine though. I promised Crow I'd take it if he couldn't. A knife straight into the heart. Poetic, don't you think?"

"Fucking perfect."

X smiled to himself gleefully. "Break her heart, her mind, her body, Crow said. It's plan B. I promised I'd fulfill it, and I'm so glad I get to share this with you. You'll love it."

"Thank you for sharing it with me. I'm honored."

"Get ready to enjoy yourself in ways you've never enjoyed yourself before. Psychological torture is so much better than physical torture. The demented exhilaration is addictive. Breaking a soul is so much better than breaking a body. Though, in this case, we don't have to choose between the two."

They both laughed lightly as they drove down the road exchanging what they'd like to do to her.

********WDYG?********

Tim jumped out of the passenger side of the sedan before it was even stopped. Elly was out just seconds later. The second sedan was already stopped in front of the building and Ziva and Sommers were running up the front steps. The two men ran after them. They all caught up outside of Ziva's open apartment door.

"Shit," Elly whispered.

"Ellie?" Ziva called, using her toe to push open the door cautiously, not eager to see her apartment as a crime scene. She was met by a bag of snacks from the corner store on the floor, and a bottle of iced tea. They all flooded the unit, guns drawn, watching for any kind of trip wire that may have been laid, and cleared it.

"No sign of her, McGee," Elly said, his hands on his hips as he looked around. Tim was already trying to ping her cell phone. He saw it was nearby and started following the geo-tracker on his phone.

"Where you going?" Sommers asked.

"Her phone is close."

"You want us to come with, or should I start printing?"

"Go ahead and start printing. Elly?" Tim asked, looking up.

"Right behind you," he said, following Tim out into the hallway.

They headed down the hall and Tim saw the door to the stairwell with a grimace. He looked at Elly and Elly shook his head before biting his lip. This didn't feel good. They headed down the stairs and exited out into the alley. Tim looked at his phone, then looked up and spun around to go in the direction of the signal, then froze. Elly froze too when he saw that Tim was staring at the dumpster.

"Aw hell no," Elly said. "If her body is in that dumpster, McGee, I quit. I quit, and I'm going to go find these bastards renegade style, and you'd better not try to stop me."

"I'd come with you," Tim said as they made their way slowly towards the dumpster, both of their stomachs flipping and hearts racing. They were two steps away from being able to see inside when they looked at each other and both swallowed hard. They approached and looked over the side. It was almost empty except a couple of bags, and right there on top of one of them was Ellie's phone.

"OH, FUCK YEAH," Elly yelled. "Thank God! No dead Ellie. Okay. Phone. I can deal with phone."

Tim just swallowed time and time again, nodding his head severely.

"Here," Elly said. "I'll even jump in and get the damn thing." He used his arms to push him up over the ledge of the dumpster and jumped in, then snapped on a glove and handed the phone to Tim. Tim had snapped on a glove as well and took the phone from him. He immediately tried to get into it only to find it was password protected. He turned it on the side and pushed his thumbnail into a small slot. The tiny microSD card popped out of the side. He nodded, then pushed it back in.

"I can't get into the phone until I hook it up to my laptop to run the password cracker."

Elly nodded. "Let's go check on Ziva and Sommers. I bet she's feeling some kinda way right now."

"I'm just glad she doesn't really live here anymore. Can you imagine trying to sleep in a place that a friend had been kidnapped from?" They both took the steps two by two as they went back up to the third floor.

"Tell me you didn't find a body," Ziva said as they came into the unit.

"No! Just her phone," Elly announced with a smile, then realized that wasn't that big of a success after all in the grand scheme of things.

"Well, I may have something," Sommers said.

"What did you find?" Tim asked.

"The doorknobs are damn near spotless. I mean, not even a partial. Bastards wiped it down. _But…_ " He opened the door the rest of the way so it was facing the group. "Someone's rather large hand and palm print is right here in the center of the door."

"I made her promise me this morning that she would not go anywhere but the mart on the corner, and I recognize this bag from there. She must have gone to get some snacks and been followed back." Ziva moved into the hallway, pulling the door partially closed on the team. "She was trying to get inside, kidnapper puts his hand on the door like this," she mimed a flat palm in the center of the door, "and then forces his way in. There are no signs of struggle other than her dropping her items. Key was on the floor with them."

"Bishop doesn't strike me as the kind that wouldn't put up a fight," Elly said, earning a look from each of them. He shook his head. "She's tiny, but she's spunky. She'd make a mess going down. They must've subdued her somehow."

"Quick blow to the head is possible, but probably would've left some kind of blood, and I don't see any," Sommers said. "Must've been some kind of drug or chemical."

"No needle or even needle cap, so they either cleaned up well, or they used something like chloroform or ether," Tim said.

"We can determine that later. Right now, we need to figure out how to track her down," Ziva said.

"Let's go down to the car. I'll hook this up to the laptop and see if it can give us anything. Elly, can you run the cameras from around here and see what we can get?"

"Absolutely," Elly said, heading for the door.

"We will canvass the neighborhood," Ziva said, "starting with my neighbors."

"We'll see you downstairs," Tim said. He and Elly headed down for the car where their laptops were waiting for them. They set up a workstation on the trunk and got to work. Tim had Ellie's phone cracked in a few minutes, and about the same time Elly was into the traffic system trying to see what he could find.

"We've got a large white van disappearing around the corner to this block about 65 minutes ago, and it was here for about 20 minutes before it left back out the way it came. I have plates. Stolen from a catering company, but now unmarked. Putting out BOLO now."

"I'm into her phone. Tying into GPS. Confirmed that she just went to the corner and back. Checking most recent activity. No social media checks or email."

Tim was startled when his own phone chimed in his pocket.

Ziva: _Can you get a photo of Ellie sent to me and Sommers? We need it for canvassing._

Tim: _Sure. I'm in her phone. Let me see if there's a recent selfie._

"Ellie, I really hope you're not the type to send naked selfies to your husband, otherwise this is going to get really awkward."

"What are you doing?" Elly asked, realizing after a moment that Tim was talking to the other Ellie.

"Finding a photo of Ellie to send to Ziva and Sommers to use while canvassing." He opened the photo gallery and scanned quickly for a photo. He found one of her and Jake all dressed up before a night out and forwarded it to his team. He was about to exit out of the photos when the first one caught his eye. It had the triangle on it that meant it was a video, and he clicked it. The video went full screen and began playing. He realized right away that it was of the street they were on.

"Oh, you brilliant woman!" Tim cried out. He pulled the video up on the computer screen.

"What?" Elly said, looking back and forth between the two screens as he tried to track the van's movements from security cam to traffic cam and back.

"She must've thought someone was following her, because she video taped her walk home from the store!" Tim said excitedly.

"No fucking way!" Elly said, pausing in his search to look over Tim's shoulder.

"Yeah way. Look!" They watched the video together. They got to the part where Ellie was watching the guy on the bus bench, her phone pointed directly at him, and they saw the eye contact she made.

"I bet that's him!" Elly said.

"I bet it is. He would fit our very broad description of this X. He's a young man. She obviously felt uncomfortable about him enough that she spent time looking at him directly. And you can tell that she's running up the stairs after that."

Elly shook his head and moved back to his search. "You running him?"

"Oh, yeah. He's already going through our facial recognition right now. It's going to take forever though because we have no idea where he's from."

"Set priorities for DC, New York, and Los Angeles. That should help speed things up a bit."

"Yeah, I did," Tim said, typing in the parameters milliseconds before Elly suggested them. "How's the traffic hunt?"

"I have them getting on the Beltway at 0942. The next camera is five exits away, and I'm not seeing them on that one yet. So, either I'm missing it or they got off on one of those five exits."

"Keep looking. We'll find her."

********WDYG?********

Ned burst into the observation room to find Greg, who pulled his headphones off and looked up at him.

"What's up?" he asked.

"You and I are about to re-interrogate Satan," Ned said, every nerve in his body ready to do battle.

"Whoa, you're really pissed. Sit down and tell me what's going on," Greg said, gesturing towards the chair next to him.

"No, I need to be angry for this," Ned replied. "That bastard's little demon has slaughtered everyone local in The Children, and now he's going after Ellie, who we can't reach."

"What?!" Greg asked, getting to his feet.

"Yeah. She's not answering her phone, and Andy just called me in MTAC saying that he had been tracking The Children and it lead him to an old factory on Mango that currently has the bodies of eight slaughtered young adults lying in it courtesy of X, who left a lovely message for us in his favorite way. "He's mine" was carved into one of them."

"What the hell? How does Andy factor into this?" Greg asked. He shook his head and gestured with his hands saying, "Nevermind, we'll talk about that later," at the same time Ned was shaking his head and saying, "Long story!"

"All I know is that Ellie is missing, and McGee just said for us to get whatever information possible out of Jake and he doesn't care how we do it."

" _I_ care how we do it!" Greg blurted out. "Ned, if you go in there as angry as you are right now, you're going to do something that's going to cause this jackass to walk free. You saw how he just shut down yesterday when it came to X. He's going to protect him with everything in him, and if that means pulling lawyer tricks, he's going to. He was going to kill Ellie himself. We can't let him know that he's got her. He'll thrive on that."

"Or we can get him talking about it and he'll trip up and give us something we can use," Ned said, frustrated.

"You're not going in there with that angle. He'll smirk at the wrong thing right now and you'll deck him. You're way too angry right now."

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuck!" Ned said with a growl, sitting down in the chair.

"He's a manipulative sadist who had plans to torture his wife, and then he was going to let X torture him and kill him. You tell him that his final wishes were being carried out and you're not going to get anything else out of him."

"So, what do you suggest?"

"We need to come at this as if though X has slipped up and we're going after him. Don't mention Ellie at all. Just X and the other kids. Not the message left or anything that could tie back to Ellie."

Ned took a deep breath and let it out. "Okay. I can do that."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

Ned shook his head no. "No, but we don't have any other choice. I have to try."

They were interrupted by the guards in holding bringing Jake back into interrogation. They shackled him to the interview table and then his chains to the floor under the chair.

"He looks… intrigued, but… harried," Greg said, observing him. "We need to act somewhat happy about the slip up. What's it going to be?"

"Let him stew a minute. I have an idea. We haven't looked at the SD card yet we found in his apartment. Let's go see if this X is on that."

Greg pointed at him with wide eyes. "Let's do that," he said. They both headed out of the room and turned to run down the steps at the end of the hallway. They busted into Abby's lab and startled her.

"Abby! We need to look at that SD card." Ned announced. "X has Ellie."

"What?!" Abby asked, turning to look at them in shock from the soldering she was doing on the tech pieces.

"Where's the card?" Ned asked.

"Um, in the box on the back table," she said. Ned rushed and got it, then came out and asked Abby what computer to put it into.

"The one on the far right is set up to protect from any virus it may have on it. Put it in there."

Ned bent over and slipped the card into the slot on the front of the desktop. He typed his password in to unlock the computer and pulled up the files on the card.

"Damn, this is a big file. It's probably hours…"

"Do you want me to do this without you two?" Greg asked.

"Hell no," Ned said. "It's not like you're impervious to this kind of stuff either. We're just looking for a face." He double-clicked the icon for the video and it came to life on the screen.

"I'm not watching this," Abby said, moving to go seek sanctuary in her back office.

Ned fast forwarded through it but stopped after only a few seconds. Two men appeared on the screen, a third hanging from shackles in the ceiling in the background.

"There he is," Greg said.

"Yeah," Ned said, screen-capping the image and sending it to the rest of the team and printing it out so that they could take it upstairs with him. He closed the video and left the screencap up. He tapped on Abby's door and she came out.

"Is it safe?"

"Kinda. I left a photo up. Can you do facial recognition on the guy on the left. He's X."

"Definitely. I'll get right on it."

"Thanks! If you get a name, please text it to us all right away." Ned said. He pulled the photo off the printer and he and Greg turned around to run out to the elevator again. They collected themselves as they waited for it and rode up.

"We gotta act smug and happy, like we've unlocked the key to the puzzle."

"Should we go at it like we're doing this to rub it in his face?"

"We could try," Greg said as they walked down the hall towards interrogation. "But what are we actually trying to find out?"

"What other hiding spots they have lined up in the city. We're focusing on location."

"Hold up, my phone is vibrating," Greg said. As he said it Ned's chimed. They both looked to find a text from Elly.

Elly: _Ellie is missing. We have a handprint, and a license plate. Unmarked white van, used to belong to a catering company who reported it stolen a couple of weeks ago. Very little sign of struggle. Van last seen somewhere between exits 31 and 36 on the Beltway. Ellie took video of her walk home from the mini mart. The guy you sent us a pic of was on the video. We believe it's X._

"Confirmation at least," Greg said. "That's good. We don't have any loose variables. We know it's him."

"Yeah, I guess that's a positive," Ned said as he typed a text back to Elly.

Ned: _We're about to go into interrogation with this jackass. We took the pic from the SD card and we're going to taunt him with it. Wish us luck._

Elly: _Luck and love. Be careful. :-*_

Ned saw that and smiled. He shook his head and held up the phone with Greg to see.

"He's good for you," Greg said softly. "You just went from being enraged to smiling with one text." Ned tilted his head as he looked at him. Greg's eyes were sad, though he was smiling. "I remember those days."

"You'll get them back in a few months," Ned said quietly. "She'll come around."

Greg nodded, and Ned gave him a firm pat on the arm. "Let's do this."

They turned, put on smiles, and entered the interrogation room. Jake looked up eagerly to see who had come in to see him. He'd been changed into an orange jumpsuit in preparations for his transfer to prison. A couple more hours and he'd be on a bus and off the property.

Neither said anything, both waiting to figure out who was going to take point and lead the discussion. Jake beat them to it. "What's going on?" he asked. "Why am I here?"

"Oh," Ned said with a malicious smirk. "We're just waiting. See, our team is tracking your _beloved X_. We want to see your expression when we get the call that he's been captured."

"What are you talking about?" Jake asked, looking from Ned to Greg and back, a bit of panic showing in the way his eyes shifted back and forth and he resettled in his chair.

Greg sat the photo on the table, then stood back and crossed his arms. "Facial recognition picked him up on camera getting into a white van near where your soon-to-be ex-wife was staying."

That made Ned think about whether or not Tim and Elly had told the NSA about what they'd found yet. He casually pulled out his phone and smirked to himself as he scrolled through the text messages and sent one to Elly asking what they'd told Hadley's team. Maybe they could pull some kind of strings to track X with facial recognition in a much faster way than NCIS had access to. He made sure his volume was turned up so he could use the chime of the text message as a weapon in the war with Jake's paranoia.

It only took a second for one to come back.

Elly: _I just got off the phone with Hadley. They're throwing everything they got at this. I'm getting linked into their facial recog software now. This won't take long now that they're on board._

Ned's smile was genuine. He forwarded the text to Greg and slipped his phone in his pocket.

"I have to say he's loyal. Willing to take the fall for you like that," Greg said without checking the phone.

"What do you mean?" Jake asked, unabashed concern on his face now as he leaned forward.

"Cleaning up your mess," Ned said with a shrug from his position against the wall under the camera.

"Yeah," Greg said, shaking his head. "Those kids weren't just killed. They were obliterated. The problem with sloppy kills like that is that there's an abundance of evidence left behind. He's going to be right there in prison with you."

Ned felt a flash of understanding come over him at what Greg was suddenly angling for. He moved to sit down with him in front of Jake.

"He wants to be with you badly enough he was going to let himself get caught. Just had to finish your final mission for him," he said with a shake of his head. "A shame he's going to let you down. We got him before he got to Ellie. He'll have to tell you all about it when you bump into each other behind bars. Maybe in your death row support group." Ned let out a sardonic chuckle.

The crestfallen expression on Jake's face was satisfying.

"Doesn't matter," Greg said with a shrug. "He's probably going to… let's say… _conveniently_ do something stupid to get himself shot and killed before you're ever reunited. So, I'm not worried. You'll both get yours."

"Don't hurt him! He doesn't know what he's doing!" Jake blurted out. "He wasn't supposed to do anything stupid. I told him not to try to come after me."

" _Please_ ," Ned said with a toss of his head and roll of his eyes. "You know you wanted him right there with you in prison. Probably even imagined sharing a cell with him. Probably another one of your sick, dark fantasies."

Ned had meant it as a joke, or a way to press him, but Jake slumped back in defeat.

"Another fantasy you'll never see lived out," Greg said softly so that he was barely heard by the others at the table. His eyes bored into Jake's with a cold threat. He poured all of his anger and resentment into that stare, then let the corner of his mouth turn up in a smile.

"What are you doing to track him?" Jake asked, and both men could see the gears turning in his head.

"All of the NSA and NCIS's tech is going after this guy," Ned said. "Facial recognition, cellular profiling and geolocation. Dozens of agents, LEOs, and Highway Patrol. It's over. Once that van is spotted, he's a goner."

"What if I-" Jake turned slightly in his seat, calculating and crossing his legs as his shackles clanked. "What if I were able to give you a way to track him down easier? Would you be able to ensure he wasn't hurt? Assuming he doesn't fire the first shot, of course."

Greg laughed.

Ned raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. "You know Hadley's out for blood," he said quietly. "First Piper, and then he was trying to go after Ellie? I don't think there's anything you're going to be able to do to stop them."

"Plus, once he's cornered he's going to defend himself. You and I both know it's going to go down ugly," Greg added. "So ugly."

"No! He's not usually a… he doesn't prefer guns. He prefers to break bones and stab and slice. Those are his go-tos."

"But he's shot someone before. That kid in the warehouse. No dice." Greg crossed his arms and leaned back, continuing to give him the stare.

"Look, he's probably heading for the place he was supposed to take Ellie. It's a-"

"Oh, so you had this preplanned?" Ned asked. "You're admitting that you had it planned that if you didn't take Ellie out, your boytoy would?"

"I think we've already established this," Jake said, trying not to look annoyed and failing. "It's an old meat packing plant. I don't have the address. It's in my phone that you confiscated. _X_ found the location, _he_ was supposed to be the driver, it's just saved in my favorites on my GPS."

"Don't care," Greg said. "It's going to be well worth replacing the catering company's van that he stole when we shoot the hell out of it."

Ned tried not to raise an eyebrow at the dark tone Greg had, but he tried to match it. He was saved by a text message from Elly. He opened it. He quickly texted him.

Ned: She's is an old meat packing plant.

He read Elly's message and his face lit up.

"Ohhhh! Oh, oh, oh! This is good!" He smiled a cheshire grin at Jake, then turned to Greg, and back to Jake. "I know something you don't know!" he said in a sing-songy voice. He took his phone and showed it to Greg, who smiled and laughed and put his hand over his mouth.

"That's great!" he said, looking at Ned. "Oh, so gross, but so great! I wanna be the one to tell him! Can I tell him? Please?"

Ned shook his head. "No, why don't we let him stew on it a minute."

Jake rolled his eyes like he wasn't interested. "I don't care about your stupid games! All I want is for X to remain safe. Please, I'm begging you! Just… just tell them to track him through his kik screenname and bring him in without hurting him. He doesn't deserve it! I dragged him into all of this! It's my fault! I corrupted him and turned him into this. He's- he's-"

"If you even fucking try to tell me he's innocent right now I'm going to let Agent Dorneget here come across the table and kill you like I _know_ he's dying to do," Greg said, voice as cold as ice.

Jake swallowed as Ned's expression suddenly fell and all of his true feelings about their situation shone through. Ned leaned forward on the table. "Give me a fucking reason," he said softly, his voice even colder and darker than Greg's.

Jake instinctively sat back and looked up at the camera. Greg shook his head.

"That won't help you any," he said with a smirk. "It's not recording. I _conveniently_ forgot to hit record on my way out."

Jake rolled his eyes. "Oldest trick in the book."

Greg's mouth turned up in a malicious smile. "No trick. I wanted to make sure there was no evidence if Dorneget couldn't keep himself in check. See, this wouldn't be the first time a suspect was killed in this room because of him."

"Ouch!" Ned said, turning to Greg. "Low blow! Way to bring up a soft spot!" His kneejerk reaction was genuine, and it fed the ominous tone Greg was setting.

"Maybe, but it's true. You're responsible for his death. I wanted to make sure if you did something like that again it wasn't on camera. That way I could take the blame this time and we could even the score."

"You two are almost as screwed up as me," Jake said with the shake of his head. "Look, all I want to know is that X is safe, and that your goons aren't going to shoot him as soon as he steps out of his vehicle."

"Oh, his name isn't X," Ned said with a smirk, and Greg's eyes lit up. Jake's attention was easily captured with that statement as well.

"Well?" Jake finally asked after a long silence. "What is it?"

"Christian," Ned said.

"Don't tell him the last name," Greg said with a smirk. "Let him wonder. Can I tell him the best part?" He looked at Ned with sinister and hopeful eyes.

"Sure," Ned said, nodding and turning to watch Jake's expression as Greg told him the most disturbing part of all of this.

"He's only 18."

Jake's mouth opened and his eyelids batted. "Wha-a-at?"

"That's right. Which means when the two of you started hooking up, he was only 17. And if my calculations are correct, he may have actually been _just_ about to turn 17. You're not only a creepy sadistic serial killer, but a pedophile."

"But he told me he was 19 back then, and he's always looked even older than that! I thought he was lying about his age and saying he was _younger_ to fit in with The Children! You mean to tell me this whole time he was actually….?"

"An actual child. Yeah. But he's not anymore! So, he'll be tried as an adult, like he should be." Greg shook his head at him, though his eyes were bright. He knew he was having way too much fun with this, especially now that they knew about the meat packing plant, but he couldn't help it. This jerk deserved to be destroyed.

"You truly corrupted him," Ned said, shaking his head. "You turned a kid into a torturous serial killer. How does that make you feel? You once said that kids and Ellie were off limits to you. Now Ellie isn't off limits. Does that mean kids aren't off limits anymore either? How old were the kids that Christian killed? 19? 18? 17? Angry, scared kids with no place to put their hatred of the world. And you took them in, gave them a cause, and told them they'd be able to take that anger out. Instead you tainted one of them so bad that those kids all got murdered."

" _Slaughtered_ ," Greg corrected.

"I wonder if he lied to them before trapping them in that room. And if he took on eight people, he's probably not alone. Which means he's taken his own minion, and you're not just responsible for one, but two, torturous serial killers. I wonder if his new fuck buddy is a child, like him."

Jake shook his head. "It wouldn't be. It's either Michael or Michael, probably Michael. They're both 18."

"Or so you think," Ned quipped.

Jake shrugged and sighed. "Yeah, or so I think."

"Too bad you'll never know," Ned said, getting up from the table.

Greg looked at him in surprise, then shrugged, smiled at Jake, and got up to join him as they headed towards the door.

"What?!" Jake exclaimed. "You-you're just going to leave me in here and not tell me what happens?!"

"Oh, if I have my way, you'll _never_ know what happened," Ned said, then shook his head and headed into the hallway. Greg closed the door behind them.

"Now _that_ is sadistic," he said with a smirk. "Get him all riled up, then leave him with all these questions? You couldn't be fucking with his head more right now."

"I know. Serves him right. We're not necessarily done with him though. I just couldn't take not getting an update from Tim and Elly. I need to know what's going on."

"Let's go to the bullpen and call them," Greg said, his hand on Ned's shoulder as he pushed him lightly in the direction of their desks. He was glad to get away from the sniveling sadist, and was even more eager to see if Ned calmed down once he separated them. It's not that he didn't _like_ this version of Ned, it just wasn't a Ned he was familiar with, and that made him unpredictable, which made him almost as dangerous as the man they were walking away from.

********WDYG?******** [WARNING- GRAPHIC MATERIAL AHEAD]

Ellie started to come to in confusion. She could hear multiple voices around her, and she could swear she heard Jake's. Something about that wasn't right. She tried to swim to consciousness and realized she could barely move even though she was sitting up. Her head hurt, and she didn't want to open her eyes, but then there was the sound of a man screaming in agony being added to the mixture of sounds around her and they snapped open.

In front of her was a laptop, and playing on that laptop was a video of a man being tortured by Jake and X. It suddenly all flooded back to her and she looked around frantically to find out where she was and who she was with. She saw two young men, boys really, sitting on crates nearby. Unfortunately, her sudden movements drew their attention.

"Oh, look. The bitch is awake," the one she didn't recognize said. His dark greasy hair hung to his shoulders and down in his face. She made a mental note to pay attention to try to catch his name.

The other man she assumed was X. He gave the appearance that he was the one in charge, leading the other to where she sat. She looked up at him and set her jaw. He sneered back.

"We're going to have so much fun with you," he said as he used a pair of scissors to cut up the center of her borrowed t-shirt, exposing her stomach and her bra. "So much fun. But first, you're going to watch some of the fun I've been having with Crow. _My_ Crow."

"His name is _Jake_ , and you can have him," Ellie spat out.

"Oh, I did," he said, crouching so he was right next to her ear as she spoke, circling behind her to talk first in one ear, then the other. "Over and over and over again." He came back around to stare into her eyes from only inches away. "And he loved it. _I_ loved it. We loved every minute of being together. If our hands weren't being used on our prey, they were on each other."

Ellie tried not to think about that, and instead focused on her freedom. She twisted her tiny wrists slightly and decided if she worked at it she could get free, but she would need to do it discreetly so that neither of these goons saw the slack in her restraints.

She thought about the interrogation with Jake, and how Greg had told Ned not to show any emotion as Jake started telling his story. She decided that was the best course of action this time as well. _Don't feed the fire_ , she told herself.

X moved back behind her and grabbed two handfuls of hair on each side of her head painfully, and forced her head up, aiming her line of sight at the laptop. She couldn't help but look, and just at that moment, she saw Jake stab the man behind his kneecap from the side. She saw his smirk as the man screamed and heard his words encouraging the sound. The man was begging between his sobs, asking what he'd done to deserve this and what he could do to make it stop. She then saw X start breaking all his toes with a hammer. She tried to close her eyes, even though she couldn't close her ears, and prayed that this would distract them long enough to let Ziva find out she wasn't at the apartment when she went to pick her up at lunch, and then she knew, she just knew that the NCIS team would come find her. She just had to hold on.

"She's not looking at the screen," the brunette said with a sneer of his own.

"If you don't open your eyes, we'll cut those pretty little eyelids off and you won't have a choice but to see," X said in her ear, jerking her by her hair again to look at the video.

She fought down her emotions as she watched Jake and X start cutting on the man. X even started nailing nails into the man's body at random places. What really made her sick though was that Jake was encouraging it, loving every bit of the dementedness. She reminded herself that wasn't her Jake. That was Crow. And she tried to compartmentalize while she needed to.

There were lots of cuts across the man's body causing blood to run down his legs and drip on the floor. At one point she couldn't tell if Jake had gotten close to sniff it of lick it and her stomach rolled. She didn't have anything in her to throw up except a few drinks of tea, and she managed to keep that down.

The video in front her jumped. It had cut off and when the man came back on the screen he was unrecognizable. There was blood over his entire body. His clothes had been completely cut away and he no longer had a penis. His stomach had been cut open and Jake had his hand in the man, who was now unconscious.

"It feels so good," Jake said with a sigh. "Nice and warm."

"You know what else will feel good and warm?" X told him, his own bloody hands going around Jake's ribs.

"Oh, I do," Jake replied as he pulled his bloody hand out of the man's body and wrapped it around X's bicep as he leaned in to kiss him. Ellie was horrified. She watched as X pulled him down to the ground with him, laying directly in the puddle of blood with Jake on top of him as they started disrobing one another, kissing each other and taking in each other's bodies.

When Jake unceremoniously plunged into X's ass, Ellie closed her eyes again. Then she felt it. X's dick was hard and pressing against her shoulder from where he stood behind her. She froze. She tried to calm herself because X was interested in Jake. The likelihood he'd be planning on raping her was lower, because he liked to bottom for his co-torturer, right? She tried to comfort herself with that thought and let her mind drift elsewhere instead of the video of her husband taking this boy in a puddle of blood in front of her.

She wanted to cry but she forced it down. Now was not the time. _Don't let them see how it's affecting you,_ she told herself. She was somewhat worried though when she watched her husband scream out his climax into X's body. If the video was over, what was coming next for her?

She didn't have to worry for long though, as the video blipped and now she was watching the two men take their dead man down from the ceiling. They tossed his body over some kind of conveyer belt in the old building they were in. X smacked his ass, and then she started coughing as she gagged so hard at how the two men took turns fucking his dead body.

"Damn, X," the brunette said. "Are you going to let me do that to this one when we're done?"

Ellie's eyes moved to look at the young man and saw that he was rubbing his crotch while looking directly at her. She felt filthy and suddenly terrified that the team wasn't going to find her in time.

Her hands had been gently twisting back and forth to try to loosen her knots behind her back. She was almost able to get her thumb through, and if she could, it would all come undone. But then there were the knots at her ankles tying her to the chair. She thought maybe she could stand up enough to turn and smash the chair against the pillar off to her side and break it apart so she could pull the legs of the chair from the rope and run even if the ropes were still around each individual ankle. That may also give her a piece of the chair to use as a weapon.

She'd never be able to do it though with the man standing behind her pulling her hair and rubbing his dick against her shoulder.

She started to think of ways to distract the two and each one was more disturbing than the next. She decided she would rather die than play along and pretend to be interested in their… cause. She was almost certain it would work though if she tried.

She wanted to say something to them, but everything she thought of sounded like it would make them angry, and they were planning on torturing her anyway, so she didn't want to do anything to speed that up. The video stopped, and Ellie felt two surges: one of relief, and one of fear. Her body went slack with relief though, and it was when she relaxed that her thumb finally went through the rope. She stopped breathing for a moment in surprise and then forced herself to take controlled breaths again.

Time. She needed to buy time. Even if it meant giving a little. She swallowed. "That's not my Jake," she whispered.

"What was that, bitch?" X said as he circled to the front of Ellie, a handful of her hair still in his hand as he jerked so that she had to look up in her eyes.

She let some of the tears loose that had been waiting for permission to fall. "That's not my Jake. What did you do to him?"

"To _him_?" X laughed. "It's what Crow did to me! He was doing this before I met him."

Ellie knew that was the truth, but she needed to buy time, and so she swallowed and knowing what it would mean she'd have to do for the next few minutes at least, said, "I don't believe you."

"Oh? Is that right? Well I have the proof, you dumb twit. How about you see what I saw when I was introduced to him? Why don't I show you what he was doing before I came along?" He thrust her head painfully back before he let go, then turned around and started shuffling through files on the computer. The brunette went to look with him, and this gave her the opportunity she needed. While both of their backs were to her, she tested to see how much she could stand up. It was surprisingly easy. She wasn't sure if she'd get another chance, so she backed up, pulled her hands out of the ropes behind her, and started shuffling towards the pillar.

It wasn't until she had slammed the wooden chair against it that the two idiots turned around. She slammed it again, and it broke one of the legs free, even though it bruised her shins. She was able to pick up a small piece of the leg, knowing it wasn't a very good weapon, but something none the less.

The two men lunged for her, but she slammed the chair against the pillar again, then took off shuffling across the room, shaking her leg to see if she could shake the chair off it. It was turned to her left side now, so she grabbed it and yanked, pulling it up and free of the ropes around her leg. She turned just in time to swing it hard and hit X across the face. He stumbled backwards and took the brunette with him.

"Fuck!" he yelled. "Get that bitch, Michael!" He muttered, and then they scrambled to their feet. Ellie was already running as fast as she could across the warehouse. There was a rusted and crumbling metal staircase ahead that lead her to the ground level. She took it in jumps, tumbling when she got to the bottom and doing a summersault. She could hear the creak of the stairs behind her as she got up and ran. She saw an opening to the street and realized it was a loading dock. She wasn't sure how far down of a jump it was going to be so once she was through the doors and onto the platform she took a sharp left turn and saw a small set of concrete stairs. She jumped those, using the metal handrail as a launch, and then hit the pavement running. She made it to the end of the alley, and as she did she heard the crunch of vehicles over the gravel driveway that led to the alley.

She broke down when she saw it was two dark blue cars with lights flashing from the dashboards, and an NSA SUV with lights flashing on the roof. She collapsed to her knees as they grew closer. One car flew past her, most likely to go after the two cretins that were running _away_ from her now that her people had found her.

She felt a surge of so many emotions flood her, and she couldn't hold it back. The sobs broke loose, and they wouldn't stop. When she felt warm arms come around her she leaned into them and knew that they belonged to Ziva. "I knew you would come. I knew you would come," she chanted through her sobs. "I knew it."

"We gotcha," Hadley said, kneeling next to her as well, afraid to touch her since she was only half dressed.

A moment later, there were multiple gunshots across the complex. Everyone stopped, including Ellie as she wiped her eyes, and they all looked towards the sounds. It felt like the world held its breath until Ziva's phone rang.

"McGee?" she answered. She sighed deeply. "Okay. What would you like me to do?" She got to her feet and reached to pull Ellie up. Sommers was suddenly there and put an NCIS jacket over Ellie's shoulders. Ellie smiled sadly at him, who gave her a small smile back. She slipped her arms into the jacket and zipped it up to cover her exposed chest and stomach. Ziva hung up the phone.

"Both men are dead," Ziva said, resting a hand on Ellie's arm. Ellie took a deep breath of resolution and nodded.

"They, um, they have a laptop upstairs on the second floor with video on it of previous murders." She felt like she was in a fog and wasn't sure what to say.

Ziva nodded at Sommers, and he opened his phone to call McGee with the info.

"I'm going to take you back to NCIS," Ziva said.

"Please," Ellie said, trying to keep from collapsing again. Nothing could've sounded better than to be in the only place she felt safe right now.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" Ziva asked her calmly, looking her over.

"My shins and calves hurt," she said. "They were tied, and I had to break the chair to get away. Used it to hit them. I don't know where the ropes went. Probably some bruising. Then I jumped down some stairs and scraped myself up a little."

"Sounds like you just escaped like a badass," Sommers said with a sideways smile for her.

Ellie raised her eyebrows and scoffed. "Something like that. I- I wanna-"

"Yeah, let's go," Ziva said. "Sommers, you're with McGee and Elly."

"I'll be right behind you," Hadley said to Ziva and Ellie.

Sommers moved to the trunk of the car as the others got in and pulled out his kit. He tapped the roof of the car on the way by to let Ziva know he was clear, and then Ziva started to back up. Once she was heading the right direction again, she turned to Ellie.

"How are you really feeling?" she asked quietly.

Ellie shook her head, the tears slipping over again. "Horrible."

"What did they do?" Ziva asked.

"They didn't get very far. Just made me watch videos of Jake committing his… crimes." She sighed. "And having sex with X. And then… violating their victims once they were dead."

"That will not be easy to digest," Ziva said. Ellie shook her head and then looked out the window. They were silent a long moment, and then Ziva spoke again. "I am sorry, Ellie. I should not have left you alone."

"I told you to go," Ellie said.

"But I knew in my gut that something was wrong. Gibbs has always told us to trust our guts, and I didn't listen, and you were taken, and I feel responsible. I am truly sorry. We protect our own around here, and I feel like I have failed you."

"But I'm not really one of your own," Ellie said, even though doing so hurt in the depth of her chest.

"Yes, you are. You have worked this case with us from the beginning, and you belong here."

They were quiet for a long time. They were almost to the Navy Yard when Ellie started talking again. "I knew you guys would come. I knew it. I didn't doubt it. I just knew that I had to hold on until you did. I knew you'd find me when I wasn't there for lunch, and then you'd just… be here. All of you." She was quiet as they pulled into the Yard and Ziva showed her credentials. Once they parked though, they sat in the car for a minute together, not getting out. "I took my chance when I had it, but I was trying to buy time more than actually escape. I didn't think you'd realize I'd been taken until lunch, and I had no idea what time it was when I came to. I just hoped… I just hoped…" Ziva reached over and put her hand on Ellie's forearm.

"You are safe now. Let's get you inside, get you cleaned up, have Abby help clean up your abrasions and we'll look at your legs."

"I want to see Ned and Greg," she said.

"Okay, we can do that too."

"I want to do that first," she said.

Ziva nodded. "Not a problem."

They got out and made their way slowly towards the elevator where Hadley was waiting for them. Ellie was feeling the pain in her lower legs from her escape. Once the elevator door opened to the bullpen, Ellie choked back another sob. Nothing had ever been so beautiful as those orange walls. She stepped through, and Ned looked up from across the room.

"Ellie!" he said, getting to his feet. He met her in the middle of the aisle and they wrapped their arms around each other. Ellie started crying again and Ned held her tightly. "Oh, thank god you're safe!"

"They came," Ellie whispered again and again. "They came."

"Of course they did! I told you we got you!" Ned said quietly but fiercely. Greg was standing next to them and he started running a hand comfortingly up and down Ellie's back.

"We got you," he reaffirmed.

"You got me," she said, shuddering as the tears fell silently. "You got me."


	14. Chapter 14

_I'm so sorry this took so long loves. I have to fight for my muse to cooperate with me, but I hope this chapter will satisfy the long wait. It's smutfree (unfortunately) but the next one isn't ;) I'm eager for our guys to get home, but I promise we'll have some more honeymoon time before it happens. I am very grateful for the reviews! I struggle to find time to reply to them, but I read every one and get all giddy when I do! (Just a reminder that I can't reply to guest reviews.)_

 **Chapter 14**

Jethro looked at his husband from across the table. His dark green eyes shone in the flickering candlelight. The content smile on his face made the entire trip worth it.

"What?" Tony asked, picking up his wine glass with that rare shyness and self-consciousness that Tony only showed around him.

"You just look really happy," Jethro said.

"I am." Tony took a sip and then sat his glass down. "And it's not just this trip. It's amazing, but…" He sighed happily. "It's beyond that. I'm happy with my life. My family, my career, my friends." He looked down and took Jethro's hand, then looked back up into Jethro's eyes. "I'm happy with me, and I wouldn't be without you."

Jethro shook his head the slightest. "Tony, you're an incredible man. You don't need me to be the man you are. You're smart, loyal, brave, funny." He chuckled quietly as he thought of a hundred different moments that Tony had made him smile or outright laugh. Tony smiled broadly and shook his head. Jethro continued. "And you have a huge heart. I love that about you. I love it all."

Tony squeezed Jethro's hand and stared back at him with a dazed expression. "There are some days where I wake up and you're there, and I just can't believe it. I think about how this happened, and about how lucky I am, and how amazingly twisted life can be sometimes, and I just think about all that I've got- I've got you, and Amira, and my guys, and Tim, Abby, Ziva, Dion, Ducky, Palmer… I've got a loving home and a career that allows me to make a difference. I've got more than most people could ever dream of having, and it leaves me with this insane amount of gratitude. It's beautiful, and I never would've had any of it if you hadn't brought me on. I'm grateful for you, and to you."

"Hell, I'm grateful you said yes!" Jethro said with a small chuckle. "Anyone else probably would've went running for the hills."

"All the more proof that this is right where I belong," Tony said, stroking the back of Jethro's hand with his thumb.

The waiter came by and smiled at them, asking if they would like anything for dessert. Tony asked for suggestions and the waiter bragged about the tiramisu being the best in Italy, and Tony told him they'd share some of that. He knew Jethro wasn't a big dessert fan, but he'd probably take a bite or two of whatever Tony ordered. He also ordered some coffee for them to accompany it and turned back to Jethro once the waiter walked away.

"Tiramisu?" Jethro asked.

"Yeah. I'm going to have to go ten rounds with Ziva when I get home just to burn off all the calories," Tony said as he sat back and patted his belly.

Jethro laughed. "You've lost a lot of weight in the past few months. I think you'll be fine."

"Yeah, but I need to do something so I don't end up with dad-bod." Tony scrunched his mouth up and his expression made Jethro laugh.

"Will you still love me if I get chunky?" Tony asked with a pout at Jethro's laughter, which only made him laugh harder.

"Tony, I can't imagine you ever getting fat, but I'd love you no matter what."

"Good," Tony said. They got quiet for a moment. "I'm still going to have Ziva work me over in the gym when I get home."

Jethro laughed quietly. "I'd offer to help, but I don't think we're going to be able to get Sierra to do a date night for a while."

Tony sighed and nodded. "Yeah. We need to find some way to thank her for taking on Amira like this. It wasn't part of the plan."

"I know."

"I was thinking about taking a couple of vacation days when I get back and letting her have some time off," Tony said. "I still have plenty of time. I mean, they couldn't be immediately. I could ask her what days would be best for her. Plus, I'd get some Amira-time. I could take her to the movies and make a day out of it."

"Sounds good. I was also thinking we should bring her a bottle or two of nice wine after her comment when you said you'd had that bottle the other night."

"Good idea. We just have to remember that whatever we bring back with us has to go through Customs."

Jethro nodded. The waiter brought over a tray with a large piece of tiramisu and two cups of café. Tony thanked him and they each took a fork and tried the dessert. Tony closed his eyes and hummed at its richness. Even Jethro was impressed with it and took a second bite.

"It's nice and creamy," Tony said, then put a bite in his mouth and slowly drew the fork out, sucking it clean in an almost seductive manner.

Jethro raised his eyebrow at that. "You know I love it creamy," he said back with a smirk. Tony smirked back.

"Yeah, I do."

"Don't get too far ahead of yourself," Jethro cautioned with a smile. "You've still got to put on a slide show for Amira tonight."

"True," Tony said with a small sigh, but he was smiling. "We did get some good shots today. I bet she'll like them."

"She loves pictures," Jethro said, taking another forkful of the dessert.

"Yeah. I was thinking about getting her a camera. Maybe trying first with a disposable camera. Do they still have those?" Tony asked, his eyebrows scrunching up in thought as he forked more tiramisu.

"I think so," Jethro said.

They finished eating their tiramisu and talked about getting a cheap digital camera for Amira. Eventually, Jethro looked at his watch. "We should probably go," he said. "You still have to put the photos on the tablet."

"True," Tony said. He flagged the waiter for their check, and soon they were walking back to the hotel, both eager to see their little girl.

********WDYG?********

Tim and Vance were sitting at Vance's conference table. Tim had just finished telling Vance about how the morning had unfolded. Vance had listened attentively and asked questions. Tim had answered them stoically. He felt exhausted inside and out. He hated taking lives and he'd now taken two that summer alone. Elly had taken one as well, and Ned had one from the month before. It was turning out to be an ugly summer for their teams.

"I regret that I had to be so involved with your case, especially with it being one of the first cases you've had to take on without either of the Gibbses. The politics of a mole in any organization are tricky. Crossing organizations like this one did required more involvement. You did well. I appreciate your leadership on this."

Tim was a little surprised at that. He hadn't felt very confident through the whole experience, and he was wondering if he was actually holding his own, or if the teams were just doing their own thing.

Vance continued, making Tim curious if he was reading his mind. "One of the things that Gibbs does well is let each of his agents follow their strengths when the big stuff hits. He stretches you as needed, but when the push comes to shove he allows each of you to follow your strongest skills. Your strengths are why you're here. Allowing everyone to do what they're good at on this, and to do what they felt comfortable with doing, was the right call. This was not the time to push anyone to try to be anything they weren't. There's time for that. Time to stretch and grow a person. This was going to stretch you all whether or not you tried for it. It called up talents each of you have and exhibit, but on a level you may not have used them before.

"You were coolheaded through this entire case. Critten played the friendly agent that kept communications open. Dorneget was an information scrounge. You all leaned in and I appreciate that."

"Thank you, sir," Tim said, trying not to sigh.

"The FBI is taking care of the bodies of The Children. The NSA is tracking down the arms dealer in California with the ATF. We just need to get the reports put together, and then your teams should take tomorrow off. I'll let Balboa know. Keep your phones on though. If we get backed up, you'll get called."

Tim nodded. "Sounds great. I'll be happy to tell that to the teams."

He stood up, got the nod from Vance that they were finished talking, and headed for the door. He was glad to bound into the bullpen and see everyone working on their reports. He stood in the center of the room and announced that once their reports were finished they were free to go with the following day on-call, but otherwise, off.

"Thank the gods!" Elly said with a groan.

"I second that," Greg said.

They all worked diligently for the next three hours to put together the reports and help each other finish theirs as well. Ziva asked Sommers to see his before he turned it in, and then sent him back to his desk to redo a section. Elly, Greg and Ned all passed theirs to each other to review before making edits and finally gathered up their stuff. The three dropped their folders off on Tim's desk, making the man look up with tired pale green eyes.

"All done?" he asked.

"Yes," Elly said. "We took turns going through each other's to make sure we didn't miss anything. If you feel there's anything that needs updated, let us know. We're all bringing our laptops home with us to work from home on it just in case."

"Good," Tim said with a nod. "And thank you all for putting so much in on this,"

They all gave him a tired smile. "Just wish it had turned out differently," Greg said.

"You heading home?" Tim asked.

Elly and Ned shook their head and Greg nodded.

"We're going to go check on Ellie down in the lab, and then we're going to go see Amira and Sierra," Elly explained.

"Yeah," Ned said with a sigh. "We can't take her tonight yet. We need some sleep first. But we're going to have her tomorrow."

Tim grimaced. "I'd almost forgotten about Amira," he said.

"We didn't," Ned said. "I've felt so guilty."

"Yeah," Elly said. "But it is what it is."

Ziva brought her and Sommers' reports to Tim. "I am going home, showering, and going to go have dinner at the restaurant with Dion."

"Nice!" Elly said with a smile. "Tell him we said hi."

"I will do that," she said with a smile.

Sommers' voice surprised all of them because it was cautious and friendly and didn't sound like him at all. "I'm looking forward to sleeping, but first I'm going to get a drink. This case was _insane_."

"I do not blame you," Ziva said, giving him a small smile.

"Oh, by the way," Tim said. "I moved our time in the gym to Wednesday morning. It was the next slot available. First thing."

Elly gave Ned a smirk. "Sounds good, Boss," he said with a chuckle.

"Oh, don't call me that!" Tim said with a groan as his head fell back and his eyes rolled. They all laughed. "You all go ahead. I've got to review these. Tell Abby I'm going to be a while."

"Sure," Ned said.

The five of them headed for the elevator. Once loaded in, buttons were pushed for the garage and the lab, and silence swallowed them. Ned leaned his head on Elly's shoulder for a second and a long sigh, and Elly kissed the top of his head, then Ned stood straight again as the doors opened to the lab.

The two got off the lift and Ziva casually looked at Sommers to see his reaction. He looked at her and rolled his eyes. She squinted hers at him and reached up and slapped him in the back of the head.

"Hey!" he hissed.

"Do not insult something good just because you don't have it," she said back quietly.

"Yeah, I mean, I know they're sappy, but we should all be so lucky," Greg added bitterly. The doors opened in the garage and Ziva and Greg got out, letting the doors close on Sommers who leaned against the wall taking in the chastisement.

"Another strike against me," he said to himself quietly. "I just can't get it right." He reached forward and pushed the button to open the doors again and got out, trudging slowly to his car as he wondered what it was going to take to make these people happy.

********WDYG?********

Ned and Elly headed into the lab with their bags over their shoulders.

"Hey Abby," Ned said quietly.

"Hey!" she said softly as she turned towards them. "Does this mean you're finally done?"

"Yeah," Elly said. "But Tim has to review all the reports so he's going to be a while."

Abby nodded. "I'm excited he has the opportunity to take on this role, but I'm also glad it's not a fulltime gig."

"Understandable!" Elly replied.

"How's Ellie?" Ned asked.

"She's… you know. She's sleeping, I think," Abby said, chewing on her lip and twirling a pigtail, her head cocked to the side.

Ned turned and headed towards the back room cautiously. Elly and Abby followed. "Ellie?" he croaked out, trying not to startle her. She sighed and rolled over towards him. When she saw everyone standing there she sat up. Ned sat next to her. "Couldn't sleep?" he asked.

Ellie shrugged. "I did for a couple of hours, then woke up and couldn't fall back to sleep."

"What are you going to do?" Elly asked, his voice full of concern.

"I've decided to go home to Oklahoma for a while. I need to see my mom and brothers. I need them right now. I can't explain all of this to them over the phone. I have to do it in person. And I can't sleep here in Abby's lab forever, but I need to be someplace I feel safe, and I know I will there."

Ned nodded. "I completely understand," he said. "When you're ready to come back, I hope you'll let us know. And keep in touch?" he asked.

"You've kinda grown on us," Elly said with a crooked smile.

Ellie gave him a small smile back. "You guys have grown on me, too." She looked from Elly, to Abby, then to Ned. "I'll let you know what's going on."

"Do you want us to drive you to your apartment to pick up some things?" Ned asked.

Ellie shook her head. "I think I need to do that one alone. I'm not going to be there long. I should be okay. My truck is still here since Ziva drove me to her apartment the other day, and she brought me my stuff from her place. I'm going to head home, pack a bag, and then drive. Probably get a hotel somewhere in Virginia, sleep through the night, get up and keep driving in the morning. The long drive will do me some good. Clear my head."

Ned nodded. "Okay. If you need to talk…" He shrugged sheepishly.

"You'll definitely be the one I call," she reassured. Ned nodded.

"We're going to go stop in and talk to Sierra about having Amira tomorrow," Elly said more to Abby than Ellie.

"Good!" she said. "That will be a big weight off everyone's shoulders. I feel so bad leaving her like that with Amira."

"We do, too," Elly said.

Ned stood up and Ellie stood up with him. She'd been given an NCIS shirt to wear and Ned noticed. "Maybe one day you'll have a whole wardrobe of those," he said with a raised eyebrow.

Ellie sighed. "I wish," she said.

"Doesn't hurt to try," Ned said.

"I should meet your bosses first," she replied. "Ziva told me to."

"That's true," Elly said. "They're two totally different people, but so similar. It's weird."

"Gibbs is awesome," Abby said. "But he's known for being a total hard ass. Just wait until you meet him before you make any judgements about anything."

Ellie nodded. "Thank you all for everything you've done for me through all of this. And thank you for believing in me. I don't think I would've gotten this kind of support from my coworkers at the NSA. I mean, you saw how things went with Hadley, and he's probably the person I would've trusted the most other than Mark. And Mark… I know the grief is coming, but I haven't had time to really process that."

"You will on this road trip," Elly said. "Don't hesitate to pull over and have a good cry. Try not to drive like that."

Ellie nodded. "Yeah. I should get going. Home is calling."

Ned reached out for a hug and Ellie gladly obliged. They hugged each other tightly. "Thank you," she whispered.

"Any time," Ned said. They finally separated and Ellie gathered her things.

They all turned to head for the door together. The two men walked her to her truck in the garage. "Text me when you stop for the night," Ned asked. "I'm not going to be able to rest well until I know you're safely out of the area."

"I will," she said with a smile. She hugged Ned one more time quickly, then gave Elly one as well.

The two men watched her drive off before getting in their car.

"You okay?" Elly asked Ned now that they were alone.

"Yeah," he answered. "I feel much better about everything. Like it's all over. She just needs to get somewhere safe with people she trusts and I understand that completely."

"Good," Elly said. "Now let's go see the Munchkin and then we'll go home and rest."

"Sounds great," Ned said as he sat back in his seat, his hands wrapped around the seatbelt across his chest. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and then suddenly he felt Elly's lips on his. It was a short kiss, but comforting. Ned opened his eyes as Elly pulled away with a smile. "I didn't realize how much I needed that."

"I did." Elly smirked.

"I'm glad."

********WDYG?********

Sierra was sitting on the couch with Amira, the tablet propped up in front of them on the coffee table. The Gibbses would be calling any minute now, and she was looking forward to it. She and Amira had been promised photos of the trip thus far, and Amira had been so excited about it that it was infectious.

The ringing started and Amira squealed, jumping up to slide her fingers across the screen and answer the call. The screen blipped a couple of times, and then Amira squealed. "Daddies!"

"Hi Princess!" Jethro said cheerfully.

"Hey Munchkin!" Tony said with a smile.

"I miss yous!" Amira said, sitting back on the couch.

"We miss you, too! Are you being good for Sierra?" Tony asked.

"She's been pretty good," Sierra said. "Got a little grouchy this morning, but I get grouchy in the mornings, too."

Amira looked shamefaced. "I told her I was sorry. I was a meanie."

"You!? A meanie?! In the morning?!" Tony said with a shocked expression. "Never!"

Amira smiled shyly and buried her head in Sierra's side, which made Sierra chuckle.

"Are you guys still having an amazing trip?" Sierra asked as she stroked Amira's hair and changed the subject.

Tony sighed happily. "Yes. _Amazing_. Had the best tiramisu of my life tonight."

"Oh," Sierra said with the tilt of her head. "I love tiramisu."

"Yeah, I do too," Tony said. "Even Jethro liked it."

"I did," Jethro confirmed.

"I hope you didn't take a picture of _that_ ," Sierra said with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "I might be tempted to lick the tablet."

"Ew!" Amira said with a smile and scrunched up nose, finally looking back up at her and then the screen.

"No, no photos of the food," Jethro said with a chuckle.

"If you want, I can start taking them," Tony said with a raised eyebrow.

"No! That's okay!" Sierra reassured quickly, making the two men chuckle.

"Do you want to see these photos?" Tony asked.

"Yeah!" Amira said excitedly.

"She's been looking forward to this all day," Sierra said.

There was a sudden knock at the door. Sierra's expression went to one of confusion.

"What?" Jethro asked.

"Someone is knocking at the door," she said. "Hold on. Stay right here, Amira," she instructed, then got to her feet and headed for her front door. She looked through the peephole and her face lit up in a bright smile. "Yay! We have visitors!" she announced, opening the door to a tired looking Ned and Elly.

"Sorry to barge in," Elly said with a smile. "We can't stay too long, but we wanted to come by and talk about tomorrow and see the Munchkin."

"Come on in! It's great to see you! You two look exhausted!" she said. "Come sit with us. We're about to go through photos with Tony and Jethro."

"The boss is on the line?" Ned asked.

As they rounded the corner Amira squealed at the top of her lungs. "BOYFRIENDS!" she exclaimed, jumping up from the couch and running to Ned and Elly. Ned swooped her up in a hug, and she hugged his neck back tightly.

"Munchkin!" Ned exclaimed back.

"There's the princess!" Elly said, rubbing Amira's back until she let Ned go and reached out for Elly to take her. He hugged her tightly and moved towards the couch with Ned and Sierra following him. He sat down with Ned sitting next to him, looking into the screen like the answers to the universe laid there.

"Boss?" Ned said, looking like he was going to reach through the tablet and hug Tony.

"Ned! Elly! How are you guys? Is the case over?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, it's over," Ned said. He leaned forward over the coffee table to be closer to the tablet and Amira climbed out of Elly's lap and onto Ned's back, wrapping her arms around him like a monkey. He held her arms there and felt her press her head against his as her chin rested on his shoulder.

"Finally," Elly added. "Boss, this case was a _friggin' mess_. And I'd say much worse, but the baby girl is right here."

"Understood," Tony said, the concern for his guys written all over his face. "You two look exhausted. Are you taking Amira with you tonight?"

"We can't yet," Elly said, shaking his head.

"Not tonight. We need some serious sleep, but we're thinking we can get her tomorrow at noon. We're off, and we figured Sierra could use a little time to herself."

"If you guys need to rest tomorrow, I completely understand," Sierra said. "You look like you've been run over by tanks. Why don't we meet at their house at 5? You two need some time to sleep in, probably do some laundry, get a real meal or two under you… You need to recover."

"You're an angel," Elly answered before Ned could decline. He wanted to take Amira, and he knew that Ned really wanted to, but Ned needed to absorb everything from this case and Elly had the good sense to know that there was a bumpy road ahead of them.

"You two really do look like hell," Jethro said. "You'll have to call us tomorrow and let us know what happened."

"Yeah," Tony said. "We're going to see Mount Vesuvius in the morning, but we should be back in our hotel room at about 10AM your time."

"We can probably give you a call then," Elly said.

Ned turned and kissed Amira's cheek, then pulled her around so she was sitting in his lap as he sat back on the couch.

"Can we look at pictures now?" she asked.

"Yes! You guys want to go through our photos with us?" Tony asked.

"Sure!" Elly said, sitting back on the couch.

They sat through ten minutes of photos and short stories associated with them and laughed and joked. The conversation turned to the nightly video call the next day being early and a list of things to remember about staying at the house. Elly took over the conversation through that part, and when he looked back at Ned, he found him asleep with Amira in his arms asleep as well.

"Wow," he said, looking from Sierra to Tony and Gibbs. "That was fast."

"Well Amira and I have spent most of the day at the pool, and she's made some friends here, so she's been running around super crazy with them. I'm not surprised she crashed." Sierra smiled at the sleeping girl then looked at the tablet.

"And I'm not surprised Ned crashed either," Elly said, looking at the tablet. He could hear Ned's light snoring that happened when he fell asleep sitting up, which was much quieter than the snoring he had when laying down. It made him want to smile, but his concern prevented that. "We definitely need to talk to you guys tomorrow. This case… I can't even begin to tell you."

"Greg gave us the run down," Tony said. "Including the part where Ned had to interview a sadist."

"He hasn't really talked about it yet," Elly said. "He's going to need to."

Tony nodded. "How are _you_?"

Elly sighed. "I'm tired, but good. The Director had me acting as a liaison between the NSA and NCIS. That was cool. It was more on the agent level. He and Ned handled their director when they finally got ahold of him." Elly could tell that Tony's eyes were back on Ned for a moment.

"And you've been watching over Ned and everyone else," Tony said. "I know you. I know all of you, and I know that you're _all_ going to feel the impacts of this case."

"Yeah, but Ned and Greg have it much worse than I do on this one, Boss. I mean… "

"Don't let him fool you, Boss," Ned croaked, cracking an eyebrow as he woke up from his dozing and heard the conversation. "He killed one of the bastards today. He's going to feel it, too."

Tony gave Elly a look that was both a reprove and a question of concern. Elly sighed.

"It was fine. The world is a better place."

"Kid was 18," Ned said, looking at Elly. "No one is impervious to that." Elly shrugged, then looked at Tony.

"We'll talk tomorrow. Go home, get some rest, and eat well. Take care of each other, and we'll hear from you at 10."

Both men nodded.

"We love you guys," Tony said with a grim look on his face.

"We love you, too," Elly said. "Enjoy your trip! Mount Vesuvius tomorrow, huh?"

"Yeah!" Tony said, his eyes lighting up. "Gotta see the sights while we have the chance."

"Good night, Boss," Ned said, swallowing hard. He hadn't realized just how badly he'd wanted to talk to Tony until he'd seen him on the screen. He was glad they'd be talking in the morning.

"Good night everyone."

********WDYG?********

When Tim finally finished the report reviews and dropped them on Vance's desk he felt the true weight of the past few days hit him. More than anything he wanted to be at home with Abby in a deep sleep. He headed to the bullpen to gather his stuff, then made his way down to the lab.

"Timmy!" Abby greeted him. Even she sounded tired, her near impervious pep a little flat. "You ready to go home?"

"Definitely," he said with a sigh.

"I already got my stuff together. Just gotta shut down the Major." She went over to the machine and pushed a couple of buttons to stop the round of testing it was working through. "I'd just started it. It can wait until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Tim asked.

"Yeah. Balboa's team is having me retest some samples from a cold case they're looking through. It's an older case and there are new tests now."

"You're going to have to come in tomorrow?" he asked, sounding defeated.

"Not until the afternoon. I'll come in at some point, run the test, and then be done unless something happens that requires me and my babies."

Tim nodded his understanding.

"It's moments like this where I kinda wish my assistant hadn't turned out to be a genuine lunatic." Abby sighed and went to grab her things.

They were soon in Tim's car on the way home. Abby had offered to drive, but Tim thought the driving may help clear his head; a mechanical process that he didn't have to think too much about.

"You okay?" Abby asked after five minutes of silence.

Tim offered her a half smile. "I'm exhausted. Mentally and physically drained."

"I am too. I was thinking about putting that vegetable lasagna in the oven, and then realized that it takes an hour to cook and decided that wasn't happening."

"Yeah. I'm going to pass out as soon as I get home."

"I need to find something to eat first, even if it's just cereal. You should try to eat something, too. It's not good for you to skip so many meals."

"I can agree to cereal," Tim said with a nod.

"Good! Two bowls of cereal it is," Abby said, giving him a challenging eyebrow at the quantity. He didn't fight it though. He knew she'd get her way, if for no other reason than he was actually really hungry.

They got into the townhouse and dropped their bags by the front door as they locked it back behind them. Tim went to put his back up weapon and badge in the nightstand drawer. His primary weapon had to be confiscated for the time being since the shooting was fatal. He didn't mind. He didn't want to be anywhere near it right now. He came back and found Abby sitting at the table with two bowls, the carton of milk, and two boxes of cereal.

As Tim took the first crunch of his Honey Bunches of Oats Abby spoke. "I'm really, really glad this is temporary. You have looked really unhappy every time I saw you the past few days."

Tim nodded. "There are plenty of things I could see myself doing in the agency one day, but being a field team supervisor does not make the list. I've never felt so stressed in my life. I've never missed Gibbs so much in my life. I would've even taken Tony in a heartbeat over dealing with this. These guys were sick bastards, and that meant every one of us were in mortal danger every time we were in the field. It's bad enough Bishop was taken, but the idea that one of our people could've been kidnapped and tortured…" Tim sat his spoon down and sat back. He put his hand on his stomach.

"You okay, Tim?" Abby asked, full of concern.

He shook his head and swallowed. "Trying not to get sick," he finally answered. "I think I'd feel better about it all if it was just me and Ziva, because I know she can handle herself and we trust each other, know each other. But as much as I like Tony's team and we've gotten involved in each other's lives, the thought of everything between Bishop and her partner and her husband… it just goes to show that you may not always know the people you think you know. And it's not that I don't trust them, it just suddenly felt like I didn't know them as well as I would've liked to in order to _lead_ them. Does that make any sense?"

"I think so. If you don't work with someone day in and day out like you have Ziva, then you don't know how they react under pressure. There's not enough there to create a pattern to follow with mental muscle memory."

"Exactly!" Tim sighed and smiled at Abby. "I knew you'd understand. You always understand me. I felt bad about it the entire time because I didn't want them to think I didn't trust them, I just…"

"Needed to get some experience."

"Yes. And I got that on this case. I feel like I could confidently work with them on anything now. _Anything._ " He shook his head slightly. "Ned has the ability to bluff a truthsayer, Greg can crawl around anyone's mind and come out unscathed, not to mention isn't afraid to find the help he needs when he needs it, and Elly… He didn't hesitate a single moment in taking that bastard out today. Had my back completely out there."

"What happened? How did things go down?" Abby asked. She'd abandoned her Cheerios and reached out to take Tim's hand. She wasn't sure she was going to like what she was about to hear, but she knew that Tim needed to talk after he took a life, and as she had been in the past, she was his go-to for that now.

Tim's blue-green eyes found her green ones, the sadness obvious.

"Elly and I had been driving together, with Ziva and Sommers in the other car. We had tracked down where we thought Bishop had been taken, and we came in fast. We pulled down this alley between the buildings, not sure where to start looking, but we didn't have to. Bishop was running down the alley straight for us.

"Two men, boys really, were running down the alley after her. When they saw us, they turned around and started running the other way. Elly and I drove straight past Bishop to chase after the two. We had slowed down so that Bishop could get out of the way, and then we were slowed down a little more by the huge potholes in the unkept alley. It was a really wide alley. Two semis could've passed each other easily down it. We got to the end and the two guys had turned left go to towards a parked van.

"Elly stopped the car and we both jumped out, weapons drawn. We were both shouting for them to get down on the ground, but they looked at each other instead and then both turned, pulling their own guns, and before they could even get them properly aimed at us, both Elly and I had shouted 'Gun!', and then we were both firing. I took down the one we know as X, and Elly took out the one we found out was named Michael." He shook his head and looked at his hand in Abby's. "They were really young, Abs. I know they were demented, and screwed up beyond repair, but they were so young." He swallowed a couple of times.

"You did the right thing, Tim." Her voice was soft but reassuring.

Tim nodded. "Yeah, we did." He looked back up at her, tears in his eyes. "But it still sucks. There are two less people in the world tonight, and we did that. I don't regret it, but it's a fact we have to cope with. And why? There are so many reasons that these kids could've turned into what they are. I don't believe for a minute either of them would've turned out this way if it wasn't for Jake Bishop. That's who should be carrying the weight of their deaths, but even if he did, I'm sure he'd relish in it. Sicko."

"Maybe," Abby said. "Some people are sick beyond help. It's sad, but it's true."

They were both really quiet for a couple of minutes. The only thing they could hear if they tried were each other's breathing.

"I've had to kill two people this summer."

"Yeah," Abby said softly.

"And this week isn't even over yet."

Abby slowly shook her head. "No, it's not."

Tim sighed and sat back, letting go of Abby's hand to do so.

"But I believe in you. You've got this. And maybe nothing will happen between now and when Gibbs gets back. Maybe we'll have a dry spell."

"God, I hope so. I need some dead cold cases. Mindlessness. Boring bliss."

"Well, will you settle for some snuggles and sleep tonight?"

Tim smiled softly up at Abby. "Definitely."

Tim went to dump what was left of his cereal down the disposal and Abby took a couple more bites of her now soggy Cheerios before she gave up and did the same. They both made their way to their bedroom and were soon under the covers together.

Tim didn't hesitate to pull Abby close to him protectively. It was comforting to know she was safe with him and that nothing was going to happen to her tonight. They were safe, they were together, and that's all that mattered.

********WDYG?********

Greg dropped his go-bag down on the dresser in the motel room. He'd decided before he'd even left the building that he couldn't bring himself to go home to Tiffany yet. He texted her that he wouldn't be home that night, though didn't tell her why. He silenced her texts and hadn't looked at any of her replies. He needed time to sleep and time to think, and he couldn't do that with her screaming at him right now.

He'd found a decent cheap motel about an hour away and drove. He needed to clear his head and he thought a short drive would help. His mind was at war with itself, unsure of which of his big baddies he needed to tackle first. He tried to think about everything with Tiffany, only to have work pop into his head and this demented case. Then he switched gears and tried to focus on work, thinking he just needed to clear it out before he could focus on his personal life. However, every time he started getting somewhere with that train of thought it wrecked right into his personal life and the War of the Prego Monster.

He couldn't escape himself.

He got his laptop out of his bag and sat at the counter. He'd picked up a bottle of wine at the drive thru down the road and took the screw off lid off before looking around for a cup to pour it into. The cups were all the way across the room by the sink, so he shrugged and decided to drink directly from the bottle.

His computer whirred quietly to life and the screen lit up. He put in his password and then opened up a Word document. He thought back to his days when he started profiling inmates and how sometimes he'd need to do this to get his thoughts untangled. He created a two-column table and labeled one Prego Monster and the other Work. Then he started typing bullet points under each column, switching back and forth between them.

There were some overlap between the two of them. Group/Individual Therapy came under both headings. He and Tiffany both needed to talk to someone individually and together, and the same went for his coworkers and McGee after this case.

Get hormone levels checked came under Prego Monster.

He went back and forth and laid out everything going through his mind in the two columns, and all the while the bottle of wine kept disappearing. He ended the document with a few paragraphs about how he was feeling about each situation and what the plan was for each. Two hours after he'd begun, he had finished the bottle and was closing his laptop. He felt somewhat better, if not more clearheaded.

A shower was the first thing on his list of things to do, followed by a good night's sleep. He ordered a pizza so that it would get there about the time that he got out of the shower and redressed, then spent fifteen minutes luxuriating under the hot water as he stretched his muscles and worked out some tension.

Half an hour later he was finishing his third slice of pizza when his phone chimed with a text.

Tony: _Talked to Ned and Elly for a couple of minutes tonight while they were at Sierra's. We'll be talking with them in the morning at 10 on video chat. You're welcome to join us then or we could call you after if you feel it would be helpful._

Greg smiled despite himself.

Greg: _Talk to them and then call me. I got a hotel room tonight so I could get a good night's sleep in peace before going home to deal with Tiffany._

Tony: _I'm glad you're taking care of yourself. We'll call you well, Greg._

Greg: _You too._

Greg crammed what was left of the pizza in the mini fridge for breakfast, then snuggled up under the blankets and was out like a light without even remembering to set an alarm.

********WDYG?********

Ned and Elly had made it home and undressed. Elly announced that he was going to take a shower as Ned slipped on a pair of cotton shorts and a t-shirt he could sleep in.

"I'm going to order something for dinner," Ned said before Elly could make it into the bathroom. "What would you like?"

"Either some honey barbeque wings or bourbon chicken," he answered before the water turned on.

"Got it," Ned said. He went to sit on the couch and used his app to order them some wings and brownies from Pizza Hut.

He was looking through all of the messages he'd ignored over the past few days while working on the case, and came across the one from Andy he'd decided not to address until he had a minute. He decided now was as good a time as any.

He read over the last couple of messages from him.

Andy: _That's not fair, Ned. That's not fair at all. I offered you forever, and you said no. First you wanted it, then you didn't take it when I offered it up to you on a fucking silver platter! I tried to be with other people after college, and it was impossible because I always compared them to you, and they fell entirely too short. I'd had the real thing, and I'd lost it. I tried to make up for it, tried to offer everything I was, my entire world to you, and you wouldn't take it. You turned your nose up at it. And I've stayed as connected as possible to you this entire time, hoping, praying that one day you'd change your mind and be willing to give us another shot, a shot that I promised myself I wouldn't screw up if it was given. I wanted to tell you that when I saw you, and then your boss was there. It was going to be my last grand attempt. I was going to ask you to run away with me. To leave it all behind. Start over somewhere, a new life, a peaceful life where there's not so much death and destruction. I knew if anyone would understand that this is too much for me it would be you, and you wouldn't judge me. I can't do it anymore, Ned! I can't keep watching people die around me. I can't keep killing people. I can't deal with this. I crave your gentle heart, and your beautiful mind, and your tender strength, and a life with you that I'll never have. I don't need you throwing it back in my face._

Andy: _I've gone back to headquarters. They aren't really happy with me, but they also aren't really mad at me._

Andy: _I heard about how things went down. Word is spreading fast through the grapevine. I guess with so many agencies involved, it makes sense. I'm not sorry I got involved, but only because of the answers it gave you. I am sorry for butting into your case. I see those as two different things. I just can't let you go._

He started his reply, thinking carefully about what he needed to convey.

Ned: _I'm sorry. I shouldn't have thrown that back in your face the other day, but obviously you had things you needed to say, and I'm glad that you have. I think it's best for both of us if we stop contacting one another. You need to move on. I have, and I'm sorry if that hurts you, but that's the way it is. Elly and NCIS are my life. You deserve to go find a life you want to live, with someone worth living it with. If you need to get out of the CIA, then get out. Do it now before you lose yourself completely. It's not failure, or weakness. It takes strength and courage to stand up for what you believe in. I hope you find it. I'm going to be blocking your phone number and email address. I think it's safest that we don't communicate at all anymore. I appreciate all of the help you've given me. I didn't mean to make you think that there was a chance that one day we could be more than what we'd become. If I did, I'm sorry. That was never my intentions. I wish for you peace and a love of your own. Take care of yourself. -Ned_

"You're lost in thought," Elly said quietly when he stepped out of the bedroom with a towel around his shoulders.

Ned looked up at him with a sad smile. "I know he's a dumbass for getting involved in our case, but I never meant to hurt him."

Elly raised an eyebrow at him. "Andy?"

"Yeah. Just replied to his texts. Told him I was blocking him and to go find his own life."

Elly gave him a sad smile and sat next to him, putting a hand on his thigh. "Are you okay with that?" he asked.

"Oh yeah," Ned said. "I just hate hurting people, and I know this is going to hurt him."

Elly nodded and looked up at his fiancé's sad face. "Come here," he said, reaching to pull Ned to rest against him, his head on his shoulder. Ned put his arm around him. Elly kissed the top of his head. "It's for the best."

"I know," Ned said. "Love hurts sometimes."

"That it does," Elly said back, nuzzling Ned's head. "And then other times it feels fucking amazing."

Ned smiled and nuzzled into Elly. "Yeah, you do."

********WDYG?********

Bishop pulled into the Quality Inn parking lot and sighed. It was nice looking, which was a relief. She was exhausted and she couldn't go another mile. If she had to, she would've slept in her truck.

She got a room and locked herself in. After checking it for anything suspicious she took the chair from next to the table and wedged it under the door. Then she pushed the recliner against the window, even though it didn't open. She had gotten the gun she kept at home when she went for her belongings. It was safely under her pillow when she crawled into bed with her clothes still on.

She'd plugged her phone in next to her bed and reached for it to set the alarm and remembered that she promised Ned she'd text him when she stopped for the night.

Ellie: _Just got into Pulaski, VA. I'm off 81 at the Quality Inn here._

She wasn't surprised that she got a text back immediately.

Ned: _Thanks for letting me know. I was starting to worry. You hanging in?_

Ellie smiled at that.

Ellie _: I think so. Thank you for caring so much, Ned. It makes me feel better knowing that someone's watching out for me right now. I've fortified my apartment from intruders. I feel like I'm going to come unglued. I need to sleep._

Ned: _I suggest some Benedryl to help you sleep. That's what I use when I can't, and it keeps you allergy-free in a dusty motel room._

Ellie: _I don't have any, but I'll keep that in mind. Hope you guys are resting. I'm going to pass out._

Ned: _Sleep well. Hit me up if you need me._

Ellie: _Will do. Goodnight._

Ellie sat her phone down and turned off the light. She was numb. She knew that she wouldn't be for long, but for now, she was so incredibly numb. Enormously anxious, but she wasn't grieving yet, and hadn't directly thought about what she'd been through. She was avoiding it completely. She decided to ignore it for a little longer and rolled over and promptly fell asleep.

********WDYG?********

Sierra was laying in her bed texting with Quinton. They'd only been seeing each other for a few weeks, but for the most part she really liked him. He was acting weird tonight though. She'd told him that the guys had been over and that's why she'd gone radio silent for a while. He'd gotten really weird about it all. He wanted to know who the guys were, and why they were at her apartment.

She blew it off like they were just friends, not wanting to give too many details about how pretty much everyone in her life right now were in law enforcement, but she was starting to wonder about Quinton. He'd been a little crazy the week before when she went out with her friends and found out one of them was a guy. She'd put him in his place though, and he was profusely apologetic. She could almost feel him wanting to ask more questions tonight about the guys and was waiting for another tantrum, but luckily it never came.

It was uncomfortable after she blew off the comments about the guys though. She was only getting one to three word answers about everything. That wasn't like them. They were both very verbose. They sent long messages most of the time and had constant conversations. She loved that he gave her so much attention and that he accepted it in return. It was great that way.

He had issues he had to tackle about getting past the fact that just because his ex cheated on him it didn't mean every woman was going to. She knew that's where his insecurities lay and she'd confronted that in him the week before. She was glad to see he was curbing it tonight, but the restraint seemed to be wearing on him. She decided to put them both out of their misery and call it a night. She needed to sleep if she was going to have to keep up with Amira the next day at the pool. She was ecstatic to finally be getting some time to herself back though, and decided that if Quinton was back to normal in the morning, she'd invite him over after she dropped Amira off with the guys. The thought made her smile and she fell asleep happy.

********WDYG?********

Ziva sat across the table from Dion. The staff had been instructed to leave them alone except for Lena who would be waiting on them. They had tucked themselves away into the furthest and darkest corner of the restaurant and both of them were grateful for the privacy.

"How can you look so beautiful after exhausting yourself like you have this weekend my dear?" Dion asked, a starry-eyed smile on his face as he stared over folded hands at Ziva. She smiled back at him and reached for her glass of wine.

"I have had much worse," she said before taking a drink.

"True, but this one seems to have been especially… volatile."

Ziva nodded. "It was."

"Care to talk about it?" Dion asked softly.

Ziva tried to decide if she should, and then realized that if she was going to share her life with the man across the table from her, she would have to learn how to talk about things, even if that meant she overshared now and then.

"Well, the woman that was staying at my apartment was an NSA analyst whose husband turned out to be a sadistic serial killer."

Dion's eyes widened, but other than blinking a few times, that was the only real reaction he gave. "That is most disturbing," he admitted.

"It was. She is a strong woman. Very bright. But… I have been where she is to some extent. Finding out that my brother was a traitor, and that Ray was a rogue agent…" She shook her head and cleared her throat. "It provided me with insight on what she needed, and I tried to give it. I feel ashamed though. I should not have left her alone. I should have stayed with her."

"What happened?" he asked, his full attention on his love.

"There was an accomplice in the murders. A partner to the husband. He got to her at the apartment and she was taken captive. She escaped. We got to her before they could recapture her. But she never should have been captured in the first place."

"Were you aware that this was a possibility?" Dion asked.

Ziva shook her head slowly, then sighed. "Yes, to an extent. And I had a bad feeling in my gut. I feel like I am responsible because I did not trust my instincts. I should have stayed with her."

"My dear, if you would have stayed with her you could have been captured with her. If she is as strong as you say she is…"

Ziva shook her head. "No. I could have protected her. The captors were kids. Two teenagers. Barely men. They would not have stood a chance."

Dion was quiet, unsure of what to say. But then Ziva looked up at him with a smile. "But I am very glad that I don't have to worry about having a partner that I can't trust. Throughout this entire experience I kept thinking that it was so nice to know that I could trust you completely. I have no fears that you are not completely genuine with me. That is a blessing that I sometimes feel I do not deserve."

"My love, you deserve the world."

"I feel like I have it. That's why I was wondering if you would be upset if I beat you to it and asked you to be in my life forever."

Dion's expression was stunned.

"I do not want to imagine a life without you in it. I have never felt so… complete. So content. And for someone like me who has lived a life that has been constantly unpredictable, your stability and the way you ground me, gives me something I never thought I would have. You are my home. Throughout this entire case I knew that I would have you to come home to. I knew that you would love me no matter what. I can be myself with you. I do not have to change. I do not have to pretend. I can be completely... me. And you love me for it. I do not need… fireworks. I need a constant burning flame to see through this world by, and you are my flame. You are my warmth. And I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"Are you-" Dion stopped, blinking with his mouth hanging slightly open. "Are you asking me to marry you?"

Ziva smiled almost sheepishly at him. "If you would like to, I would very much like to."

Dion smiled from ear to ear suddenly, then got up from his seat and pulled Ziva to her feet and close to him, his arms going around her waist. He looked down into her eyes with so much joy and laughed. "Yes! Yes, my love! I would gladly give you my life." Ziva smiled back and Dion leaned in and kissed her. She kissed him back, a beautiful soft joy filling every inch of her body like the warmth he was for her.

They pulled back from the kiss and Dion looked like he was going to burst out of himself. The joy was shouting from his very eyes. He was shaking just the slightest, and he turned and faced the rest of the restaurant. Ziva laughed, knowing that Dion was about to do something very Greek and didn't mind at all because it was such a wonderful part of him that she couldn't bring herself to be embarrassed.

"Everyone!" he shouted joyfully. "This wonderful woman wants to be my wife!" Ziva laughed mirthfully, her arm going around Dion's waist as he pulled her to his side. "She wants to marry me!"

All of the waitresses cheered and so did many of the patrons. Many clapped and a couple sent up shouts of congratulations and "Opa!". He turned back to her, reaching to take her hands and hold them to his chest.

"Ziva, my love, you had already made my life so complete that I didn't think it could get better. You have helped make my dreams come true and given me someone to share them with. It will be my honor to cherish you for the rest of our lives. I am so glad to have you as my family." He leaned in and kissed her again and there was another round of celebration behind them as well as many people giving them "awwwws" and applause.

As Ziva kissed him back she realized that despite how horrible the case was it had given her a gift: clarity to understand just how lucky she was and what she wanted out of life. As she kissed Dion she knew that she had never been happier in her entire life than she was in that very moment, and she was overcome by gratitude, love, and hope for a great life.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Tony had turned the tablet off and looked at Jethro with a sudden fiery intensity that let Jethro know he was in for it. He raised an eyebrow at him, and Tony stood up next to the bed to sit the tablet on the nightstand.

"I want you undressed in ten seconds," he said, stripping his own clothes off. Jethro knew an order when he heard one and got to his feet, quickly divesting himself. Tony turned the nightstand lamp off, but the room was still dimly lit by the lamp in the corner across the suite. Jethro stood naked, half hard at the way Tony was taking control.

Tony got into the nightstand drawer and pulled out the lube. He went over to the other side of the bed where Jethro was standing and tossed the lube down on the bed before stepping up and against Jethro. He looked down at Jethro's chest and stomach, then to his cock, noticing that it was growing in anticipation. He allowed his fingertips to follow his eyes, teasing their way down Jethro's chest, stomach, and then his dick. A few good strokes and a hiss from Jethro made Tony smirk.

"You're mine tonight," he said huskily.

"You don't see me complaining," Jethro said quietly.

"No, and I won't either, because if I do you won't be allowed to cum. Understood?" Tony said, his lips millimeters from Jethro's. Jethro simply nodded. "Good," Tony said, then leaned in to kiss Jethro as he continued stroking his cock.

Jethro reached to touch Tony, and Tony let go of his cock to take his hands. He spun them so that Jethro was pushed against the wall and Tony pinned his hands above his head. It took Jethro's breath away and he gasped involuntarily. Tony didn't care though. He continued their kiss, forcing his tongue into Jethro's mouth and twisting the slick muscles around each other.

Jethro felt his defenses drop. He allowed himself to slip into that place that Tony took him from time to time where Tony was in control and all was right with the world. Where he didn't have to worry about anything because he would be told what to do and nothing else mattered. All he had to do was follow instructions and he would be satisfied beyond measure.

Tony let go of his hands but he knew that he was supposed to leave them where they'd been placed. Tony's mouth and hands travelled down his body, taking in ever centimeter. His teeth tugged on his nipples, making them taut little perks that sent shivers through him. Then Tony was licking his abs as if each muscle had a different flavor. He let his eyes close and his head fall back as Tony's nails clawed down his sides until they stopped at his thighs as Tony dropped to his knees in front of him. Even though he expected what came next, it still felt like an electric shock to his entire system. Tony's mouth engulfed the head of his cock and sucked- hard.

His gasp turned into a moan as Tony started fondling his balls and he took Jethro deep in his throat. This was a quick and fevered pace, and a small part of his mind wondered what set this animalistic need off in Tony, and the rest of him just reveled in it.

When Tony stopped sucking him though and stood up, Jethro whimpered. He was working his way to an orgasm quickly at the pace Tony had been going, and now he was bereft. Tony's kiss was hard and Jethro let his tongue fight with Tony's in a way that showed he was still prone to Tony's commands, but at the same time wasn't a completely docile participant. Tony pulled back and smirked in approval.

He surprised Jethro when he suddenly spun him so that he was facedown on the bed, his ass in the air. Jethro groaned, anxious and eager to feel what he knew was coming next. Tony picked up the lube and Jethro could hear the liquid squeezing from the tube, the sound of suction marking when Tony let the bottle go. There was a click, and the lube landed on the bed next to him. He was prepared for the fingers that entered him. Tony started with two, not giving him time to adjust.

There was a sudden "Crack!" and then the pain hit of Tony's handprint on his ass. He felt his dick try to jump under him but it was pinned to the bed. He tried to change his position so that he was on his feet and only using the bed for additional support instead of the bed taking his full weight. He figured it would be better for Tony's height and angle as well. As soon as he started to move though there was another smack against his ass so loud he knew anyone passing by in the hallway heard it and the moan he let escape.

"Stay down," Tony demanded.

Jethro could only nod and let himself absorb the sensation of Tony's fingers stretching him open. Soon a third was added and then a fourth squeezed in. He groaned as Tony scissored his fingers apart, stretching him effectively. When Tony finally pulled them out he had to fight back a whimper. He knew what would be next. He just had to be patient for it.

Tony picked up the lube again, and less than thirty seconds later he was breached unceremoniously. He was glad Tony had gone for the fourth finger with how he just slid right in and started a long-stroked fuck.

"Hell yeah, Jethro," Tony muttered. "You always take it so damn well." Tony fell forward, catching himself with a hand on each side of Jethro against the bed as he continued thrusting in and out of him. At that angle he was hitting Jethro's prostate with every pump of his hips and Jethro started a series of moans in time with the thrusts.

"That's right," Tony muttered. "You're mine!"

"All yours, Tony," Jethro gasped back.

After a long while Tony stood up again, needing to change his angle and reset his pace. Jethro put his hands flat on the bed then remembered the rebuke he got for trying to change positions before, but his back was starting to hurt like this. He was grateful when Tony's hands guided his hips up to the position he had been going for before.

When Tony continued his pace, it was much harder and faster. Jethro took the hammering with gasps and pants. He'd probably walk sideways all the next day but it felt so good that he didn't care. Tony started losing his rhythm and he began pushing back, knowing that Tony was close enough not to care. The slapping of their thighs stung as the sweat dripped down them and made them stick and rip apart with every thrust, but neither of them cared, only allowing it to heighten the sensation.

Tony finally roared out his release, his head thrown back, sweat being tossed from his face as it did so. Jethro was breathing heavy, praying that Tony let him jerk himself off quickly. After a minute though he found himself on his back and Tony was climbing onto the bed. He expected that Tony was getting into blow job position, but was surprised when Tony grabbed the lube instead, slicking up Jethro's cock.

Jethro's eyes rolled into the back of his head as Tony lowered himself slowly onto his cock, squeezing it like a vice between his tight muscle. He started a slow and drawn out pace that made Jethro let out a keening sound that earned a malicious smirk from Tony.

"What?" he asked, almost mockingly. "Too slow for you?"

"Please, Tony? Faster? I need to cum. Please?" he found himself asking.

"I love when you beg," Tony said. He started a hard ride, bouncing up and down, working his legs muscles as Jethro watched him take every inch effortlessly.

"Hell yes," Jethro coaxed. "Please, just like that."

Tony could feel the moment Jethro's orgasm was upon him. All of his muscles tightened underneath him and he could feel Jethro's dick swell in his ass before he heard the yell and felt the warmth fill him.

Tony sighed happily and climbed off Jethro, falling to the bed next to him, both of them panting. After a minute Jethro turned his head to look at him. He looked back with a shy smile.

"You needed that," Jethro said huskily.

Tony shrugged. "It's just like that sometimes. It balances everything out. Me, us, everything."

Jethro gave him a crooked smile and small nod. "It does, doesn't it?"

Tony nodded and leaned in to kiss him, placing his hand on the side of Jethro's face as he did so. "I'm glad you get me so well," he whispered once he pulled back, his hand still on Jethro's face as he stared into his icy blue eyes that could somehow make him feel so warm. Jethro's hand came up to rest on Tony's.

"Always will."

********WDYG?********

Ellie sat up gasping for air. She was covered in sweat and she threw the blankets off in a panic. She reached for her gun, then the lamp switch on the nightstand. She looked around the room in a frenzy, swallowing back her fear in gulps between breaths.

The clock on the nightstand read a little after 3AM. The locks were all in their place at on the door. The chair was still in front of the unopenable window.

"A dream," she muttered. "Just a dream."

She'd thought faceless teenagers were coming to suffocate her in her sleep. Or maybe it was to drug her again. She couldn't really tell, but she knew she was in danger and like hell if she was going to go back to that hellhole she'd been in earlier that day. She'd die fighting this time.

Her thoughts went back to the experience in the warehouse. The videos of Jake, _her_ Jake, torturing those people, were imprinted on her mind. She knew she'd never forget them. The thought of him having sex with not only X, but with the corpses of his victims, made her sick. She reached for the trash can next to the bed and immediately threw up.

Once her stomach was empty she decided to jump in the shower. She needed to wash her night sweat off of her, and if she could, wash her life as she knew it down the drain.

********WDYG?********

Jethro and Tony rode the Circumvensuviana train to where their tour bus would pick them up to see Mount Vesuvius. They were glad it was a clear, dry day so that the fog would be minimal and allow them to look out over Pompeii. They were both looking forward to the trip. They had planned that once they got as far as the bus took them to stop and eat their packed lunch on the mountain, then catch the next bus back down. Tony had cleared it with the tour guide and the hotel was nice enough to make them sandwiches with a fruit side to take. Tony had their lunches and four large bottles of water in his backpack on his lap as they rode the bus towards the mountain.

Once the tour guide started speaking to them, Tony started translating quietly. They'd both read up on Pompeii before the trip while trying to decide if they wanted to go visit the actual city. The decided against it in the summer heat. Their tour bus was blissfully airconditioned. As Jethro thought about that decision he was glad they'd made the call they did.

It didn't take as long as they thought it would to get to the top. They were soon unloaded to go look at the crater of the volcano. It was huge, but for some reason Tony thought it would've been bigger. It wasn't demystifying. If anything, it was even more entrancing. The ash that spewed from that crater had 2,000 years earlier destroyed an entire civilization. Stopped people in their tracks. It was a powerful place. Destructive, but powerful. Both men found themselves more awed than they expected.

Tony snapped pictures as Jethro moved to get a better look. He slyly took a couple photos of Jethro and was really happy with how one of them turned out. He realized that they still hadn't gotten their mantle photo together, and turned to a young woman who was also taking pictures. He asked if she would be so kind as to take a couple of the two of them with his camera.

She agreed with a smile, and Tony moved to stand with Jethro. "Picture time!" he announced quietly. Jethro realized what he meant and they stood together with their arms around one another's waists and smiled while the lady took the photo. They turned to look at each other at one point and smiled. They'd just taken their official honeymoon photo.

Tony thanked the woman and she returned his camera. He looked at the camera to see the pictures and noted that she'd taken three. The first was a little blurry, the second was perfect, and then the third was of the two looking at each other which Tony loved completely. They looked so happy together. He showed it to Jethro who smiled as well.

"I think that's the one for the mantle," he said.

"I agree."

They decided to find a spot to sit and have their lunch as everyone started loading back onto the bus a little bit later. They found that there was a wall around the small parking area for the buses and took up their perches with their legs hanging over the edge facing the city.

"It's beautiful," Tony said before taking a bite out of his sandwich. Jethro nodded.

"Yeah, it really is," Jethro said.

"We should take Amira somewhere special for vacation. Like Disneyland or something. She loves Mickey and Minnie."

"Been thinking about that myself. I want to do it while she's young enough to really get the magical feeling, but not so young that she won't remember."

They got quiet for a minute, and then Tony asked tentatively. "Did you ever take Kelly?"

"We went to Disneyland in Los Angeles. We'd probably be better off taking Amira to the one in Florida."

Tony nodded. There were a lot of reasons that could be, but the one that he was most concerned with was that the one in California held more memories for Jethro that he didn't want to confront. This needed to be a whole new experience with their daughter.

"Florida it is. We could take another long week. Do the beach, the theme parks…" Tony trailed off.

"We should take her to Dad's sometime, too. Probably sooner than later."

"That's true. I'd love to waltz into town and shock everyone. Two men raising a biracial little girl?! Stillwater has never seen such a thing!" Tony laughed and Jethro chuckled with him.

"Ahhh… fuck 'em," Jethro said with a smirk as he looked at Tony. "I want her to see where we were raised. We should take her to New York, too."

Tony smiled and nodded at that. They ate their sandwiches and popped their grapes into their mouths as they stared out at the vista.

"I've been thinking about retirement," Jethro said, startling Tony a little.

"As in retiring soon?"

"No," Jethro said with a shake of his head. "But I'm thinking about what I want to do after NCIS. It all changes with a daughter."

"True," Tony said.

"You'll still be working. Amira will be in high school. That is, if I make it that long."

Tony chuffed at that. "Well, I think we're doing a lot better so far with all of the things that could've ended our careers, and uh, our _lives_ , sooner. We're being safer. We have a reason to now."

"Yeah, we are. But life doesn't always work out the way you want it to. Like the people down there in Pompeii didn't expect this volcano to blow and wipe them out. It could blow behind us right now. We just never know what's going to happen."

"True. I have a feeling there's a point to this depressing conversation. What is it?" Tony asked cautiously.

"I just want to experience as much _life_ as possible. I want to give Amira everything she'd ever want, but more than anything I want to give her the best memories of her dads, her family. Hopefully I'll live long past retirement and see our grandkids, but it's possible I won't. I want to live."

Tony nodded, absorbing the reality Jethro was presenting him. They were quiet for a long couple of minutes. "Jethro," Tony started. "I feel like my life didn't begin until I met you. Now that I have you, I want to make sure you have the best life you can live. Yeah, our daughter needs to have all the best of everything, but _you_ deserve the best of everything, too. You tell me what you want to do, and we'll do it."

Jethro smiled at Tony again. It took him a minute, and Tony had all but given up on an actual answer, when Jethro started speaking slowly. "I want holidays at our house. I want picnics with each other and with our daughter. I want road trips to Pennsylvania and weeks on the water at a time where we enjoy the peace of the waves, Amira making friends everywhere we dock along the way down the coast. I want her to understand that life can be very serious, but it can also be very beautiful. I want you to expose her to art and I want to take her out in nature. I want camping trips with the Girl Scout Troop under the stars, and I want our teams around a bonfire in the back yard on weekends and after hard cases. I want romantic getaways to the mountains and I want to splash in waterfalls with my daughter while you laugh and take pictures. I want to live my life."

"I love everything you just said. I might, _might_ , even be willing to camp under the stars with you guys sometimes. _Might._ "

Jethro laughed at that. "I love you, Tony."

"I love you, too, Jethro. And tonight, we're going to look into trips to Disney and Pennsylvania and plan out the time we'd need to take off. I hope Tim is prepared to take on being interim team lead a lot more often, because he's going to have to."

"I should call and check on him," Jethro said with a sigh. "Your team is more than willing to reach out to you when they need to. McGee won't do that."

"We'll call Elly and Ned, then Greg, then we can call Tim," Tony suggested.

"Sounds good."

They sat on the wall for another half an hour talking about all of the things they'd like to do. When the bus came to take them back down the mountain, they were sad to go. They decided that they needed to check in with one another more often like that. They hadn't really had a serious talk about what they wanted in a while. It was good, and Tony sat quietly on the bus ride back in thoughts of what he could do to make Jethro's life fuller.

********WDYG?********

Elly woke up with Ned's arms around him. His head was against Ned's chest and he felt safe, secure, and loved. He also realized that Ned was barely snoring. He'd gotten used to the snoring pretty quickly. It was a kind of security blanket, letting him know that Ned was right there and that he was safe and wanted. He also knew that Ned wasn't sleeping very deeply if he wasn't snoring very loudly. He peeked at the clock next to the bed and saw that it said 8:23. They'd slept ten hours. Elly smirked as he decided he would wake Ned up in the best kind of way.

Very gently he reached down and started fondling Ned's soft cock through his boxers. It still impressed him when flaccid. The length and girth were a gift that he enjoyed as often as possible. He had found though that blow jobs didn't last as long as they had with others because his jaw started hurting earlier from being so open. Ned hadn't minded though. Elly had analyzed the entire experience and decided that the larger girth led to better suction which led to a better blow job anyway, so he never failed to please no matter the length of time he was going at it.

He moved as gently as possible so he didn't wake Ned up yet until he was in position. He pulled the waistband of Ned's boxers up and over his dick, pulling it down until it was nestled under his balls. He knew he didn't have much longer until Ned woke up with all the movement, so he took Ned's cock in his hand and immediately into his mouth. The nice thing about waking someone up with a blowjob is that you didn't have to do much in the way of foreplay. Not that he didn't love foreplay, but sometimes it just wasn't what he wanted.

Ned jolted awake, and his cock got hard immediately in Elly's mouth. He gasped, sat up, saw what was happening and then groaned in pleasure as he laid back with a sigh of happiness.

"Fuuuuuuuck," he moaned. "You're so fucking amazing."

Elly enjoyed his full mouth, sucking and licking. He liked to run his tongue around the cleft of Ned's head, and he loved the reaction he always got for doing it. Ned's groaning continued and Elly fondled Ned's balls.

It took a couple of minutes to condition Elly's throat to open up enough to take Ned's girth. Once it did slip past his tonsils Ned's hand went to Elly's head, grabbing his short hair in his fingers.

"Hell yeah! Take it!" he said, struggling not to thrust further down Elly's throat than he was ready for. The grasp on Elly's hair lightened enough that he could pull his head back to breathe and his lips stretched into a smile around the warm rod in his mouth. He pushed forward again, taking Ned even further.

"Oh, god… so fucking amazing," Ned croaked out before letting Elly's head go to fall back again.

Elly kept working him over for a few more minutes, going faster and faster as his jaw couldn't take much more. His hands worked to pump Ned as well, urging him to his release.

"Yeah, baby. Just like that."

Elly tried to stay on rhythm and then reached to give Ned's balls one final light squeeze.

"Shit!" Ned gasped "I'm-" Then he lost his breath as the orgasm hit, spilling down Elly's throat as he took him as far as he could manage.

Elly pulled off with a satisfying slurp as Ned softened in his mouth. He moved his bottom jaw back and forth a moment to get himself realigned, then smiled up at Ned who was laying back on the bed panting and flushed. It was a beautiful sight and made his own hard cock jump.

"Good morning," he said with a smirk, laying down to kiss Ned. Ned kissed him back passionately, then rolled him so that he was on his back. They kissed hungrily and frantically for a long minute while Ned stroked Elly's dick, then in a flash he moved so that he was swallowing it whole.

"Oh shit, honey!" Elly said, pursing his lips to let a breath escape and then his eyes were rolling into the back of his head. Ned was feasting on him, licking, sucking, stroking, and all with a speed that let Elly know he was expected to come quickly. "Fuck!" he hissed. "Someone's thirsty!" He could hear Ned moan around him and felt the vibration through his cock as it slipped down into Ned's throat.

He loved watching Ned suck him off. It was like watching a great artist paint a masterpiece. There was so much skill and all practiced with ease. No hesitation about where this stroke went and when to move this way or that. It was always perfect.

The way Ned's fingers of his left hand dug into Elly's hip made him wonder briefly if he'd have bruises there. It had happened before, and he actually liked that little bit of pain. He was far from a whips and chains kind of person, but that little bit pushed him.

It wasn't long until he was crying out his own release. It was bliss wrapped in light wrapped in bacon. Just simple perfection. Ned was at his side kissing him before he'd even caught his breath and he could taste himself on his lover's tongue. It was intense and he was glad that he'd instigated the whole session.

Finally, they calmed down a little and laid on their backs on the bed, both too hot to snuggle for the moment. They panted and came down together from the heights they'd just climbed so quickly.

"I love when you wake me up like that," Ned finally said huskily.

"I love when you appreciate it," Elly said back with a smile. He reached down and took Ned's hand that was laying on the bed. Their fingers intertwined and they laid there and smiled at each other for a long few minutes.

"You make me so happy," Ned said softly.

"Good, because you make _me_ happy," Elly said back.

********WDYG?********

Elly and Ned were sitting at Ned's little kitchen table with Elly's laptop open in front of them. They both had cups of coffee and were demonstrating their own nervous habits. Elly was tapping his foot and Ned was cracking his knuckles. The clock ticked over to 10:00 AM and Elly reached to hit the call button.

"Wait!" Ned blurted out.

"What?" Elly asked, looking at Ned.

"What if they were supposed to call us? Are you sure we're supposed to call them? I mean, what if we're interrupting something?"

Elly chuckled, smiling at Ned. "We're not going to interrupt anything. They're expecting us no matter who calls who." He leaned forward and placed a calming kiss on Ned's lips. Just like that all of his own nerves stopped. He smiled at Ned for a moment when he pulled back, then the computer started beeping at them.

"See?" Elly whispered. "They almost interrupted us."

He turned and clicked the answer button. A moment later the stream of the two older men was on the screen in front of them.

"Hey guys," Tony said with a soft smile.

"Hi Boss, Gibbs," Ned said with a sigh. Elly raised a hand in a wave.

"How are you doing?" Tony asked.

Both men shrugged and looked at each other. "Still kind of tired. Slept a long time, but it's more mental exhaustion I think at this point," Elly answered for them.

"I imagine so. From what Greg told us you have been through hell the past few days. Do you want me to tell you what I know so far, or do you want to start from the beginning?"

"Why don't you tell us what you know?" Ned answered. "I don't think I want to relive this from the beginning."

"Fair enough," Tony said. "Long story short, you had uncovered a mole in the NSA that was actually the husband of your new friend. He was a sadist and killed a bunch of people. You had to interrogate him. Why don't we start from there?"

Ned sighed and looked at Elly then rested his head in his hand for a moment before running his fingers through his hair and sitting back. He looked at the screen and swallowed. "He's a horrible person and I hope he gets the death penalty for what he's done."

Jethro raised an eyebrow at that. Tony nodded slowly.

"Why did you do the interrogation?" Tony asked.

"Vance told me to. He said that I knew the most about Crow's- that's what Jake Bishop went by- Crow. He said I knew the most about Crow's communications with his people because of the message board research I'd been doing. He also believed that my new friendship with Bishop would keep me from hurting the bastard or taking things too far. If I had to guess it probably also had something to do with the fact that we'd worked so closely together in MTAC through this and I knew what answers he wanted most while also knowing which answers the team needed."

"Did you agree with this, Elly?" Tony asked.

Elly looked at the screen and nodded. "Ned knew this bastard better than any of us, unfortunately. He also had learned his wife, Ellie Bishop, well enough to know anything he may have needed to prod him in that discussion. Ned is more big-picture. The rest of us had been working pieces of this case, but Ned had to have the entire thing in focus at all times because of MTAC. He thought to ask things I wouldn't have thought to ask."

He looked up at Ned, then back at the screen. His voice turned cold and angry. "But that also means that he had to sit across from that… _creature_ … while he told everyone about how he'd enjoyed torturing these people."

"Take us through it, Dorneget," Gibbs said.

Ned nodded and sighed, taking a drink of his coffee, then he started. "I was angry. I didn't want to be the one doing it. And I really didn't want to be going in with Hadley, the NSA lead on the case. He had let Ellie down- that's Ellie Bishop. I'll just call her Bishop. But he'd let Bishop down, and though he was sympathetic to her, he'd kept us in the dark on things we desperately needed to know, and Bishop had trusted him. I don't know what it is about her, but she feels like a little sister to me. I feel really protective over her."

"To be fair," Elly butt in, "We _all_ feel really protective of her. She's brilliant, feisty, and you'll both love her. We'll talk about her craving to be an agent later."

That made Jethro and Tony raise an eyebrow at each other, but then they were looking back at the screen. "Keep going," Tony said with a nod.

"Well, I went over some questions I knew we needed answers to with Hadley before going in there. Greg was going to be on an earpiece with us the whole time, but he follows us out into the hallway and he tells me that I should give this guy room to talk when he starts. So that's what I did.

"We went into the room, and I asked him a couple of questions, refused to let him address his soon to be ex-wife, and followed Greg's commands in my ear throughout it. The guy was really sick, guys. I mean… he talked about how he found his love for torture from watching a video he had to go over for a deposition in a case. And he just, as Greg puts it, _devolved_ from there. He started looking up torture stuff online, then got involved with video chats of people torturing other people, and then finally was asked to come help someone torture someone else in person while all of these people watched online."

"That's when things started getting really sick," Elly said softly.

"Worse than that?" Tony asked with a cringe. The two younger men nodded.

"He described having sex with his torturing partner in the blood and entrails of his victim," Ned said, reaching for his coffee to wash the thought down past the lump that was forming in his throat. He became very interested in the drink in the mug, feeling too uncomfortable to look up at Tony and Gibbs.

"That's fucking disgusting," Tony said, his voice full of the disgust the act brought to mind.

"It's also very typical for sadists to find sexual release in their acts. The fact that they partook in it together was really disturbing. What he admits to doing later on just adds to the disgust." Ned took another drink of his coffee and realized the cup was empty. He rolled his eyes part way and then sat the cup back down.

"You want me to grab you some more?" Elly asked quietly. Ned just shook his head.

"Boss, he ended up taking a _kid_ as his protégé and partner in his future killings. I mean, he thought he was 18 when they started, but he wasn't. He was only 16. He basically taught a _16 year old_ how to torture and kill people, and then they not only had sex with each other, but raped their dead or near dead victims. Victims that were _payment_ to them for running a shitty, half-assed terrorist organization made up of, you guessed it, more kids! I mean, this guy was both a lunatic and a puppet to both his desires and his ISIS handler. Over the two plus years he'd been doing this, which how he got away with it for two years, I don't know, but you can believe we're going to be getting on the FBI's case about it until we understand just how badly they could have fucked something like this up, but over the two years they'd killed _dozens_ of people, Boss. _**Dozens.**_ How the fuck does something like that go unnoticed?"

As Ned talked his voice grew more and more passionate, his words coming faster, spilling out and over his dis-ease with the idea of talking about it.

"I can't _wait_ until the cold case database is finished because you know that would've flagged on there. And then maybe only three or four people would have died instead of freaking _29_. Not that that wouldn't have been bad enough, but maybe these kids that were incredibly screwed up and misguided would still be alive, because after we captured Crow, his little protégé fuck buddy went and took a protégé of his own, and they killed the kids that were with them from the organization. And then they kidnapped Ellie Bishop and we had to send our people in to save her! This whole situation has just been so fucked up!" Ned was practically yelling, all of his frustration right at the surface.

They all were quiet for a minute as they took this in.

Elly was the first to speak. "To be fair, I feel like I need to say that Bishop had escaped her captors right as we arrived to find her. She's a badass little chick."

Ned nodded and shrugged. "Why don't you tell them what happened when you guys went to save her?" he suggested, needing the attention to be off of him for a minute. He was breathing heavy and he knew that he was probably red in the face.

"Not much to tell. We got to the scene. Bishop was running down the alley we had turned down. The two young men that had kidnapped her were chasing after her. Once they saw our vehicles they turned and ran in the other direction. I was driving the vehicle up front with McGee. I swerved around Bishop and chased the two men. They made a hard left, we made it with them, then saw they were trying to get into a van they'd stolen. We jumped out, drew our weapons and announced. The two looked at each other, then turned towards us while trying to pull their own guns. We both warned each other and next thing we're both shooting. I took down the new protégé, McGee took down the original protégé. Two shots each. We must've been thinking alike because we went for headshots. These sick bastards didn't stand a chance."

"Yeah, but…" Ned shook his head, then reached and took Elly's hand from where he was squeezing his own thigh tightly. His words came out much more gently than his earlier ones had. "The kid was only 18. And I've seen his pictures. He looked really young."

"Yeah," Elly said with a sigh, looking at Ned and addressing him instead of Tony and Gibbs. "But if he helped X with killing _eight_ other people, some just as young as them, then he deserved to go down. There's no rehabilitating anyone like that."

"That's true, but…" Ned shook his head slightly.

"It's never easy to take a life," Jethro said. "Taking a young one is even worse, even if you know what they've done or what they were planning to do. Children represent something to us. Purity, innocence, goodness…"

"Possibility, opportunity, hope," Tony added.

"Taking a life that young can leave you questioning those things," Jethro said carefully.

Elly looked back at the screen with a smile. "Which is why I'm looking forward to spending time with Amira tonight. She's all of those things. She'll be an excellent prescription for this ache," he said.

"At least you can admit that there is an ache," Tony said.

"Oh, it's sore. It hurts like fuck. Any time you have to take a life, Gibbs is right- there's something about that that doesn't sit well, no matter how good the reason. We're not meant to take life; we're meant to give it. It goes against our nature. But somewhere between giving and taking life is preserving it. And I know that's what I was doing, and when this ache passes I know I'll be at peace with it."

"I know that feeling," Ned said. "Like when I took Nick out. I don't have any regrets or doubts because I was protecting you. Preserving life. I understand that."

"We do, too," Jethro said. "I'm glad you have as healthy a viewpoint on it as you can."

"Just surround yourself with the good things," Tony said. "And as for you, Ned. I don't even know where to begin. I don't know if I would've been able to restrain myself from hearing all of that and taking the bastard out right there where he sat. I mean, that's just pure evil."

"Really sick bastard," Jethro muttered in agreement.

"I don't blame you for being angry. I would never have sent you in there like that," Tony said, shaking his head as he was lost in thought. "I'm sorry."

"He was right though," Ned said shaking his own head. "Even Hadley had a hard time making it through the interrogation, but somehow I took it. This guy is probably going to stick with me until he dies, but I think I just wanted the answers more than anyone else. And I had Greg in my ear the entire time telling me what to do."

"He'll be dead soon enough," Elly said with a shrug. "He's admitted to four murders in California, and the murders of NSA Piper and our Marine were technically in Virginia, so he'll be fought over until they decide who gets to shoot him up."

"Is the D.A. going after the death penalty?" Tony asked.

"If she's not, I'm going to petition for it," Ned said. All three men stared at him. "I'm not going to be comfortable again until I know this monster is being slayed."

"That's very different from your usual stance on this sort of thing," Jethro finally said.

Ned nodded. "I know, but he's very different than anyone else I've ever encountered and hopefully will ever encounter again. The only way he's going to be stopped is if he's taken out."

"Whatever you feel like you have to do, but Ned," Tony said calmly. "Don't lose yourself in this. You've fought your fight. It's time for someone else to fight it."

"We'll see," Ned said resolutely. They were all quiet for a long couple of moments. "I miss you guys."

"Me too," Elly said with a twisted frown.

"We'll be back on Sunday," Tony assured with a smile and a small shake to his head.

Both of the younger men nodded and Ned crossed his arms, not realizing he was copying Elly.

Tony laughed. "You two look like you're pouting!"

They both looked at each other and cracked a smile, then looked back at Tony, their bottom lips sticking out. "We've got mental booboos and our dads are thousands of miles away!" Ned joked.

Tony laughed and Jethro chuckled, which succeeded in making both Ned and Elly smile genuinely.

"Are you guys going to be okay until we get home?" Tony asked.

"Yeah," Elly said with a twerk of the corner of his mouth.

Ned nodded. "I think we'll be able to hang in there. We're going to go find some lunch. Everything we have in the house is either frozen or spoiled."

Tony grimaced. "Nothing like cleaning out the fridge after a long case."

Ned and Elly's expressions as they nodded showed they agreed.

"Go take care of each other. We'll talk to you tonight when we call to say goodnight to Amira," Jethro said.

"Okay," Ned said. "Can't wait to hear about how your trip was today!"

Tony grinned from ear to ear. "It was beautiful! We'll show you our photos later."

"Sounds good," Elly said. "Talk to you then." He reached forward to hang up the call as everyone was shouting their goodbyes. "You okay?" he asked Ned softly, taking his hand back.

Ned looked at him with a half-smile. "Yeah, I will be. I've got you, and I've got them, and everything will be okay if I just let it be."

"Okay. I'm here if you need to vent."

Ned leaned in and gave him a soft kiss. "I know. Thank you."

********WDYG?********

Tony sighed, looking at Jethro. "I hate being so far from them."

"I know. I'm feeling the same way right now knowing that McGee took one of these kids out, too."

"Let's check in on Greg and then and get to McGee."

Jethro nodded and Tony dialed Greg on the tablet through Skype.

"Hey Boss," Greg answered.

"Whatcha doing, Greg?" Tony asked.

"Driving home," Greg answered.

"Slept in?"

"Yeah. I really needed it."

"Sounds like it. We just talked to Elly and Ned. They said they'd slept late too."

"I hope so. How are they?"

"I think they're going to be okay, though I'm worried a little about Ned." Tony looked at Jethro as he turned to get comfy on the bed.

"Oh? What's up?" Greg's voice was concerned.

"He said that if the DA doesn't go after the death penalty for this guy that he's going to petition for it."

"Huh." Greg sat thoughtfully for a minute. "That really doesn't sound like him."

"I know. I'm afraid he's going to be caught up in this for a while."

"I'll watch for it," Greg said.

"You need to take care of you and Tiffany," Jethro said.

"Yeah. I'm on my way home to have a nice long talk with her. I think I can do that now that I've gotten some sleep under my belt. I feel much more clearheaded than I did last night. I know what I need to say, and I know what I need to have happen. Now I just need to know what she needs, and we'll figure out a way to make this work."

"Good!" Tony said.

Jethro leaned closer to the tablet so Greg would hear him. "Just let us know what you need. I meant what I said. If you're going to bring someone in from out of town, we have more flyer miles than we'll ever use. Just say the word."

Greg smiled to himself. "Thanks, Gibbs. I might take you up on that, at least for the next couple of weeks. I have an idea of someone to bring into town. I know she's on summer break right now because she's a teacher."

"Great!" Tony said, smiling up at Jethro who nodded.

"I should be getting home in a few minutes. I'll let you know how things go."

"Okay. We'll talk to you later then."

"I'll text you if it's too late to call."

"Sounds good." Tony felt a wave of nerves run through him for Greg. He was about to encounter the Prego Monster, and he was defensive of his agent. "Don't let her…" He searched for the words.

"Hurt you," Jethro answered unhesitantly.

Tony nodded to himself. "Mentally or physically."

"I won't," Greg said. "Thanks guys. Talk to you soon."

"Bye," Tony said, then hung up the call. He sighed and looked up at Jethro. "Tim?" he asked.

"Tim," Jethro said, taking the tablet and trying to work it. It only took him a few seconds to bring up the phone book and find Tim's Skype contact. Tony smirked at him proudly.

"You're getting pretty good with that thing," he said playfully.

"Gotta at least _try_ to keep up with Amira," he said with a smirk of his own as the call started ringing.

"Boss?" Tim answered with full video, obviously on his phone as he sat in his home office. Tony knew he was sitting at his typewriter.

"Hey McGee," Gibbs said.

"Hey, McBossman," Tony said playfully as he leaned into the screen.

"Hi Tony. What's going on?" Tim asked.

"We heard about the case and the outcome. Wanted to see how you're feeling about it all," Jethro said quietly.

Tim sighed, defeat coloring his face. "Honestly? It's been a train wreck and I'm so glad it's over that I…" He got quiet, shaking his head and looking anywhere but at the phone. When he brought his focus back on the two men he swallowed hard. "I'm exhausted, Boss."

"I heard you had to shoot an 18 year old," Jethro prompted quietly.

Tim nodded silently.

"Heard he was a sick bastard," Jethro said just as quietly.

"He was. But…" Tim shook his head. His mouth was open, but when he couldn't find the words he closed it and looked back at the screen. Tony could tell his eyes were on Jethro, not him.

"Why don't I leave you two alone?" Tony said, resting his hand on Jethro's shoulder. Jethro glanced at him with a slight nod, and Tony got up and headed for the bathroom.

Jethro looked at Tim again and suddenly he looked so much older than he'd ever seen him. "Run it through for me, Tim," he said gently.

Another deep breath and a nod and Tim started, looking down at the desk top for a moment before meeting Jethro's eyes intermittently as he spoke. "We were expecting a terrorist. Ended up being a sadist that was playing at being a terrorist so he could have an endless supply of victims.

"I'm sure Parke told you about the perp's wife, the NSA analyst, Ellie Bishop. Guy was an NSA lawyer himself. Completely unsuspected.

"He had a partner, a kid, went by X but his real name was Christian Rike. Was 16 when he was recruited to help him two years ago. They had a foul relationship, torturing, killing and mutilating people together, and it was sexual between them in the most… retch-worthy ways.

"We caught the sadist, but not Rike. He'd escaped, and then took a sidekick of his own. Both of them were 18. They killed off a bunch of teenagers from the terrorist group, then kidnapped Ellie Bishop. We went to get her back, and she'd escaped and was running right for us when we pulled up at the abandoned factory where they'd taken her.

"Critten was driving, and we went after the kids as they ran away. We blocked in their van, and they pulled their weapons on us. We fired first. I don't know why we did it, but we both went for headshots. It was the weirdest thing." He shook his head and looked Gibbs in the eyes. "We both felt _that_ threatened by them. We both _knew_ that they were a much bigger threat than they were in that moment. If they were to get off on some kind of technicality or eventually let out on parole, someone else would've died. It ended there. Then. No chance for them." He looked down at the desk top, shaking his head slightly as he thought.

"McGee, you did the right thing."

"He was 18, Gibbs! He wasn't even really an adult yet! I… I know he was a monster. The thought of his eyes as I stared into them as I pulled that trigger-" His voice broke and his eyes started getting wet. "Yes, they were young. They were very young, but those eyes were evil, Boss. There was nothing there. A hollow, empty, soulless look to them. It's all jumbled up in here right now," he said, pointing to his temple. "He was a kid. He was a monster. No, a kid! No, a monster! And I feel like it's tearing my brain apart at the synapses!" Two tears suddenly escaped, one from each eye, and Tim refused to acknowledge them.

Gibbs shook his head slightly, giving Tim what he hoped was a compassionate look. "McGee, he wasn't a kid. Childhood ends when you get pleasure from giving pain like that. He may have had a young body, but he wasn't a kid. A very young man, maybe, but not a kid. And you did the right thing. You protected you and Critten, and possibly everyone else that was on scene with you. Not to mention anyone else they may have encountered one day. People like these guys, they don't stop. They find ways to get their fix. They're sicker than sick. And there's no fixing this kinda sick."

"Tim?" Abby said, entering the room. "Who are you talking to?" She found Tim on Skype with Jethro and smiled. "Gibbs!"

"Hey, Abs," Jethro said with a slight smile while Tim hurriedly wiped his face.

She took in the entire scene and her eyes grew wide. "Tim?" she asked hesitantly. "Are you okay?"

"Can we get a minute, Abs?" Jethro asked.

"Yeah, sure," she said, backing out of the room as she looked warily at Tim.

Tim took a deep shuddering breath and looked at the window before looking back at Jethro as he struggled to blink back more tears. "You know," he said as Abby closed the door. "We've got unbelievable people. Other than Sommers, everyone has been incredible during this entire case, and even Sommers is starting to come around. I wouldn't have made it through this without them. They all held up through the long hours, the intensity of the case, the confusion of the whole thing. They were a great team. They have no qualms with taking direction from me, and they function with minimal supervision. This could've been a lot worse if they hadn't of been so cooperative."

"Good," Jethro said with a nod. "If they hadn't been Tony and I would've kicked their asses to hell and back."

"I don't think that's what motivated them. I think they're just naturally motivated by the work. It's a powerful thing. Makes me hesitate. Wonder if I'm strong enough to lead them."

"Shit, McGee. Obviously you are. We've heard from Tony's entire team. We know how fucked up this case was. You're not the only one nursing their wounds right now. If you weren't able to lead them we would've heard about it, but no one has bitched about you, and no one on our teams are in the hospital, and the bad guys are either caught or dead.

"Get your mind on good things. Have a drink or two. Write or whatever you need to do to relax. And if all else fails, spend some time with Ducky. But you should know, it doesn't get easier. And the fact that you're feeling the way you feel just means you're human and you're still a good guy. Don't let it destroy you. Find your closure. Move forward. Take the lessons, leave the rest. You're a good agent, Tim. Don't let this bring you down."

Tim swallowed hard and nodded. "Got it, Boss."

"I know you do, Tim. I never would've left you in charge if I didn't think you could handle it. And don't hesitate to call us if you need to talk about it. This may stick for a while, and that's normal. Talking it through helps. Tell Abby what you're going through. Don't make the mistakes I did. Get this out of you when you need to. Talk to Abby, talk to Ducky, me, Tony, Parke, whoever you need to, but don't let this eat you alive. You did the right thing."

Tim let out another shuddering breath and nodded. "Thanks, Boss."

"And for god's sake, don't hesitate to come to me with crap like this! You're important to me, Tim."

Those words hit Tim somewhere in the gut and he could only nod. They were so direct. He was important to Gibbs. It was something he'd always assumed and hoped for, but to know, without any doubt, that he was important to Gibbs was overwhelming.

"Tell Abby I said we'll see her when we get back." Tim nodded. "Take care of you, McGee."

"You too, Boss. Stay safe." Jethro nodded and ended the call. Tim sat there in shock. He swallowed a couple of times, and then tears started falling for a whole new reason.

********WDYG?********

Tony came out of the bathroom wrapped in one of the plush bathrobes and found Jethro sitting on the bed with his expression lost on a far wall.

"You okay?" he asked. Jethro shook his daze off and looked at Tony.

"I can't help but want to be there."

"I know. Me, too."

"They'll be okay, though. If we come home now McGee will think that I think he can't handle this."

Tony nodded, sitting down on the bed next to Jethro. "Doesn't make it any freaking easier," he said with a quiet disgruntled voice.

"Nope. Not a damn bit."


	16. Chapter 16

_I got some feels going here. Not really a tissue warning I don't think, because I didn't cry and we all know I'm a total softy, but who knows! There's some angst. I hope you enjoy it!_

 **Chapter 16**

Greg pulled up in their driveway and took a deep breath. He took the keys from the ignition and stared at the building for a minute. He closed his eyes and swallowed, begging the universe for the words he needed to save his marriage. He grabbed the duffel bag next to him with his go-kit in it, knowing that he'd have to restock after this case and last night's hotel stay. He hit the door lock on his key fob as he headed up the walk to the door.

As he slipped the key in and unlocked the deadbolt with a loud thunk, he took another deep breath. _You got this. Stay calm. Demand her calm. Don't give in. You got this. You got this._

He pushed his way into the house and dropped his duffel bag in the living room. He moved into the bedroom to find Tiffany sitting up in bed, a box of Kleenex next to her and lots of used ones piled around her on the bed, the night stand, and the floor. A leftover empty pizza box was sitting next to her on the bed as well. She looked at him with red puffy eyes, the signs of hard crying more than evident in her stringy hair hanging around her face and her damp shirt.

The corner of his mouth bent into a frown and he dropped his gun, badge, phone and keys on top of the dresser. There were still pieces of the alarm clock on the floor, though most of it had been picked up.

"I hate seeing you like this," he said softly.

"Are you leaving again?" she asked just as softly, a sob escaping.

"Not today," he said. He moved to the bed and pushed the pizza box and tissues down toward the foot and sat next to her, taking her hand. "The case is over. It was horrible. Serial killer turning kids into terrorists."

"Oh," she said, looking down.

Greg looked aimlessly around the room before looking back at her. "We need to have a really serious conversation. Before we do that though, have you checked your sugar? Did you really eat a whole pizza?"

"I started eating it for lunch yesterday," she said with a shrug. She seemed remarkably vulnerable and small. He hadn't seen her look that way for a long time. He wondered if her sugar levels were off and possibly screwing with her emotions even further.

"Let's test," he said, squeezing her hand to go into the bathroom and get the glucometer. He came back and gently took her hand, holding her finger as he placed the device on it to prick for a blood sample. It shook with nerves, and after he got the sample Greg brought the fingers to his lips to kiss them softly. The expression Tiffany gave him was of embarrassed shame. He frowned at that and looked down at the meter.

"Honey, your counts are way up," he said with the gentle tone of someone trying to coax a hurt pet to them. "You're going to need a shot."

She nodded, chewing her lip. He went into the kitchen and got the needle of insulin from the fridge and came in. She wouldn't look at him if he was looking at her, but he saw in his peripheral that she stared at his face as he focused on injecting her with the serum. As soon as he was finished and looked back up at her as he capped the used needle, she looked away.

"I'm going to go get rid of this and make some coffee. Give that some time to work and bring you back around before we talk. Do you want some coffee?"

She shook her head.

"How about some lemonade?" he asked, knowing that there was an endless supply of sugar free lemonade in the cabinets at any given time. Her shrug was his only response. "We should get something to drink in you. I'll be back."

He spent about fifteen minutes waiting for the pot of coffee to percolate and making a pitcher of Crystal Light. When he came back into the bedroom he sat a glass of lemonade next to Tiff on the nightstand and started cleaning up the tissues, shoving them into the pizza box. He stayed quiet and waited as he worked, letting the insulin get into her system and start bringing her back around.

When he came back into the room from taking the tissue-pizza box to the trash he found Tiffany drinking down half of the glass of lemonade. Her eyes were still red, but her face didn't look so confused. She still looked defeated and ashamed though.

"How about a shower?" he said quietly, sitting on the edge of the bed next to her, pushing her hair behind her ear. "When was the last time you took one?"

"Been a couple of days," she whispered.

"That'll make you feel better. Come on," he said, pulling back the blanket and taking her hand. She chewed her lip again and hesitantly let him lead her to the bathroom. He helped her take her clothes off, then took his own off after a moment of thought. He got the water just right and guided her over the edge of the bathtub and directly under the warm stream. They were facing each other, and as he brushed her hair back as the water pushed it over her face, he saw her jaw quivering. He bit his own bottom lip and shook his head slightly.

"Oh, love. We're going to fix this. We're going to find a way to make this work," he said calmly. "I promise."

Tiffany burst out into tears and he pulled her sobbing body against his, her head on his shoulder as she could only lean against him and cry. He kissed her temple. "I've got you, honey. I've got you." After a couple minutes of her crying, with one arm around her, he reached for the loofah and screwed up his face as he tried to figure out how he was going to get the soap on it. He eventually managed it and started rubbing it over her body. He let her lean against him and the wall alternately as he gave her a quick cleaning, then reached for the shampoo. He soaped up her hair and told her to lean back to let the water rinse the soap down her back instead of over her face. The entire time she kept sobbing.

Once she was cleaned he turned the water off and just held her until she started feeling cold to him. He guided her out of the shower and started drying her off. He noticed she had one of those hair clips on the counter that opened like a mouth full of teeth. He grabbed it and twisted her hair, putting it up haphazardly with the clip so that it was out of her face. He wrapped a big towel around her and led her out to the bed with him, still naked. He laid her on the bed, then slipped some boxers on before he got in on his side and held her as she cried and cried.

"I've got you. We'll figure this out. I love you, babe. I know you're in there under all these hormones. We'll work it out." He whispered these reassurances for twenty minutes until she fell asleep in his arms. He laid with her, slightly shaking his head now and then as he thought through the situation.

He'd taken Hormones and Behavior in his undergrad and knew that this wasn't normal, even for a pregnant woman with the kinds of complications that Tiffany was having. He was going to need a medical doctor. Whatever was happening with Tiffany was beyond his paygrade. He regretted leaving his phone across the room. He wanted to research this, but he didn't want to move Tiffany, so he reached for her phone on the nightstand instead.

He unlocked the screen and saw that her messages were up. He knew with everything in him that he shouldn't be looking through them, but he saw that she had been texting the friend he was going to ask to come to town to spend some time with her. He didn't like what he was seeing, so he scrolled up into the messages.

Tiffany: _He's not coming home again tonight! I don't know what to do! I'm stuck in this bed pregnant w/his baby and he's out there doing God only knows what w/God only knows who!_

Bree: _Girl, do you really think he's cheating on you? Because Imma come up there and kick his balls up through his throat if you think he is._

Tiffany: _I wouldn't blame him. I'm so horrible to him. All I do is bitch at him. I'd probably be looking somewhere else 2 if it were me_

Bree: _What proof do you have? Or is it just a gut feeling?_

Tiffany: _He's just never home! He's been gone almost all weekend. He comes home in the middle of the night, then leaves again the next morning really early. He says it's a work thing. Some big case. But isn't that what they all say? Some big project. Some big case. And what does it end up being? Some big titty ho or some flirty slut at work._

Bree: _Girl, seriously. Man's a cop. Not just a cop, but a freakin' fed. Just ask him for some case details or something. Then when he tells you about it, fact check. Research that shit. Google is your friend._

Tiffany: _They specialize in the crimes of military people. You know that shit doesn't make it to the news. They cover it up like it never happened._

Tiffany: _Besides, he always tells me that he can't tell me about his work. Says that he "doesn't want work to contaminate his home life"._

Bree: _Normally I'd say red flag, but man's also a shrink. Not so farfetched._

Tiffany: _Why wouldn't he cheat though? I mean, I was so screwed up this morning that I threw the fucking alarm clock at him. Like, boom! Crash! Bang! Broke the damn thing._

Bree: _Hell. I'm surprised he didn't arrest you for assault on an officer. This is driving you that crazy?_

Tiffany: _He was so great about the pregnancy thing that I thought even if he was having an affair he'd call it off, and we'd be able to move on, but now he's gone again all weekend…_

Bree: _Shit honey. You thought he was having an affair before and you didn't tell me?_

Tiffany: _Well it was only suspicions. I didn't have any proof, and I don't know what I'd do without him, so I just… ya know… stayed. I need him. Now more than ever. And he's not fucking here. I should've just left, but now I'm pregnant and I'm stuck and I can't get out._

That was all that Greg could take reading. He shook Tiffany awake. She opened her eyes and looked around. He sat up in bed, and held up the phone. She looked at it with wide eyes.

"What are you doing with that?" she whispered.

"Tiffany Parke, I love you more than anything in this fucking world. I would never, in a million fucking years cheat on you. _Never._ Not a fucking chance. There is no one in this entire world that could tempt me into giving up my soul mate and best friend, certainly not some big tittied office ho. The fact that you would even think about that for a moment hurts me so fucking bad that I can't even tell you. I'd rather have taken that fucking alarm clock to the damn face!"

They were both sitting up by now, and Tiffany looked both shocked and ashamed.

"Not only that, but you've got Bree thinking this shit now, too. And damn it Tiff, you know that woman loves you to hell and back! I don't need to be choking on my own balls, and you know she'd do it!"

"I'm sorry! I just… I don't know what to think anymore!" she cried. "You're never here and I know I'm never here anymore, and I just… I thought…"

"You thought I could hurt the most important person I've ever had in my life like that?" Greg's voice cracked and he swallowed hard, his eyes burning.

Tiffany shrugged with one shoulder and hunkered in on herself, taking a pillow and holding it against her with a look of exhausted shame on her face.

Greg reined in his temper and took a few deep breaths as he looked around the room. He knew the stress wasn't good for the baby, and he'd rather absorb a bit of this than continue to lash out and hurt her by getting Tiffany's blood pressure even higher than it probably already was. He ground his teeth, then looked at Tiffany.

"I am a federal agent. I will always work crazy hours. I will always be gone at the most inopportune times. I will miss important moments in our lives, but I'm doing it to make this world a better place for you and our daughter, and everyone else out there. I feel like I've found my calling in this work. I have everything I could possibly want, but you're miserable. I have a wife I adore, a daughter on the way, a job that fulfills me and uses my talents while stretching me and keeping me challenged. I have a safe home and my bills are paid. But I'm miserable, because I know you're miserable, and if you're not happy, then all of it's for nothing because more than all of it- _all of it_ \- **you** are the most important thing in the entire world to me. You, Tiffany. But I'm not going to allow you to continue to treat me like crap just because you're pregnant, and I'm not going to accept you hiding secret suspicions like this and not talking them out with me. That's not my Tiffany. You're better than that."

Tiffany nodded, looking both calmer and crestfallen at his words.

"What we need to decide is what it's really going to take to make this work. What do we need to do in order to have a healthy marriage, a healthy family, and both do the work we love. And that starts now. What do you need?"

Tiffany shrugged slowly. "I don't know."

"Well, I talked to Tony and Gibbs and they suggested that you bring someone in to help you get settled into this bed rest stuff since I can't stop working. We need the money and insurance benefits now more than ever. They said they have the flyer miles that they'd be willing to donate to the cause. So, I thought we'd ask Bree to come spend the rest of the summer with you until she has to start back to school."

"Really?" she asked hopefully.

"Of course!" Greg said with a shake of his head. "You need the support, and she's a great choice for that. She is compassionate but also doesn't take any shit. If you get hormonal with her she'd put you in your place." He gave her a smile at that second part and she scoffed but smiled and shoved his knee. He chuckled. "Seriously though. It will give her the chance to see that I'm not cheating on you, too, because I feel like she's going to come busting through the wall any minute now like the Koolaid Man and kick me in the 'nads."

Tiffany burst out laughing. "She just might, in all honesty."

Greg smiled at her. "You're so beautiful when you laugh," he said softly. "I don't see enough of that anymore."

"I know," she said, twisting her lips in that shameful look again. "I'm really sorry that I threw the alarm clock at you."

"Yeah, that can _never_ happen again." He was dead serious as he said it. He sighed. "I think you should go see your doctor about some hormone therapy while you're pregnant. I'm not sure what's possible right now, but there's gotta be something. You're straight up bipolar right now, and as much as I'm starting to fear for my wellbeing, I'm just as scared that when she's born you're going to fall into some serious postpartum. Maybe if we can treat the mood swings now it can prevent it. Who knows? We still don't know enough about how all of that happens. I can tell you though that you're scary these days. I expected mood swings, some serious ones even, but the digs you've been taking at me and the things you've been saying…" He shook his head. "It's abusive, Tiff."

Tiffany's eyes welled up with tears again and she swallowed back a sob, but she nodded. "I know," she whispered. "I'm so sorry, Greg. We've got our shit, but you don't deserve that."

"I'm not them honey. I'm not one of the bad guys. I spend my life trying to put the bad guys behind bars. Hell, the one we dealt with this weekend is going to get the death penalty come hell of high water. There are some seriously fucked up people in this world, and I know you know that, but I'm not one of them. I don't deserve to be treated like one."

She nodded, grabbing more Kleenex to blow her nose and wipe her eyes.

"And as for what you need, like I said, I talked to the boss about that. He knows that you're on bedrest and he's going to help me file for FMLA so that I can take care of you more. I can't be here all the time, but I'll be able to take time off as I need to when you're having a hard time. And I thought maybe we could look into having a nurse or an aide come check on you once a day? Blood pressure and sugar and all that? Only when I have to work. Otherwise I'll take care of you."

"Okay. I think that sounds good," Tiffany said and took a deep breath while nodding. "I can handle that. I just… I go through these feelings of wanting you here with me so damn bad. You're my everything, and I get scared and depressed and anxious and you're not here, and then I get angry at you for not being here, and then…"

Greg nodded. "I can understand that. I get just the opposite sometimes at work. Things get really stressful and just… dark… so dark… and I don't want to associate you with it at all. Like if you were to call it might somehow contaminate you. That you might have to see the darkness, and I know you've already seen your fair share. I only want sunshine for you for the rest of your life. I never want to be the source of your pain. But you know I have to work."

"I do. But, I thought that it might be more than work, and that made me so angry and sad and I've just been… going crazy."

"If you seriously doubt that I've been working I'll let you call anyone on the team randomly to verify that I've been on a case."

"No," she replied with a sad smile. "I think you've gotten your point across. I'll call off the Koolaid Man."

Greg smiled at her. "Good. But don't call off the Koolaid Man. Call her and tell her to get her ass on a plane. Her bestie needs her."

Tiffany grinned. "I think I should call my doctor first. See if she can squeeze me in today."

"I support this plan. I'm all yours today. Let's see what we can get taken care of."

"I love you, Greg."

"I love you, Tiff. Never doubt that."

"You may need to remind me now and then."

"Always knew that was part of the bargain when I married you. I'll spend every day possible reminding you."

"Thank you." She leaned forward and kissed him softly. He kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her. He held her long past the kiss, just breathing her in.

"I was afraid I was losing this," he whispered.

"I'm not going anywhere," she said.

"Yeah," he said chewing on his lip. "Your text message to Bree said that you'd stayed because you were stuck. That's never a good enough reason to stay, Tiffany. If you ever actually feel stuck, talk to me. We'll either get unstuck together, or we'll find a way to be separately together."

Tiffany pulled back to look him in the eyes. "I'm not stuck, Greg. I thought I was if you were cheating on me and I was pregnant, but… other than that I've never felt stuck for a moment with you."

Greg nodded, not sure if he believed that. "You're an incredibly strong woman, Tiffany. If you aren't happy, you deserve to go find that happiness. Don't stay because you're stuck, or because you're afraid. You're my best friend. If that's all I could be, I'd understand."

"You're my best friend, too Greg. And I can't imagine wanting to spend my life with anyone else."

"Okay," he said. "Okay." He smiled at her, but he was secretly afraid in the back of his mind that she was staying for all the wrong reasons.

********WDYG?********

When Ned and Elly pulled up outside of the Gibbs' house with their overnight bags they both turned to each other with a smile.

"It's like coming home," Ned said.

"It kinda is. We should take a peek at some realtor sites and get a feel for what we want," Elly said.

Ned nodded enthusiastically. "That sounds fun. Let's do that."

"Cool. Maybe tonight after we put Amira to bed?" he said.

"I'm down," Ned said, then leaned in for a quick kiss before getting out of the car.

They used the key that Tony had given them to let themselves into the house, announcing their presence right away as not to scare Sierra and Amira. They both grinned broadly as they heard Amira's squeal of "Boyfriends!" before she appeared in the entryway to be scooped up for the appropriate greeting.

"Princess Amira!" Ned announced in a goofy voice with some kinda of made up accent as he bowed graciously.

Elly scooped Amira up into his arms and hugged her, giving her kisses all over her face that made her giggle.

"Elly! You're silly!" she said through her laughter.

"I do believe that this is a well-established fact, Princess Amira," he said, passing Amira off to Ned for a hug as Sierra came around the corner.

"Hey guys," she greeted with a smile. "It's so good to see you."

Elly chuckled. "I bet! We really appreciate you taking on all this extra time this week."

"It's worth it," she said with a look at Amira. "Her dads deserve a great honeymoon, and her "boyfriends" were out making the world a safer place for her. I got to hang out with her at the pool all weekend. I _definitely_ would rather be doing that than saving the world."

"Did you guys save the world?!" Amira asked in awe.

"Well, not exactly," Ned said, looking at Sierra.

"We did get a bunch of bad guys though," Elly said dramatically.

"A bunch of them?!" Amira asked excitedly.

"Yup," Ned said with a nod. "And we made a new friend, too! I really hope you meet her one day. She's super nice."

"It's a girl?"

"Yeah, and guess what her name is?" Elly asked.

"What?" Amira asked in wonder.

"Ellie."

"Nuh-uh!" she said in disbelief. "Really?"

Elly nodded. "Wow…" she said, then turned to look at Ned who nodded as well.

"That's just uncanny," Sierra said, crossing her arms as she leaned against the doorframe and looked at the guys.

"Yeah," Elly said with a nod.

"Her name is Ellie Bishop. She's about 5'2", she's super smart and she is just a total kickass chick," Ned explained to Sierra.

"How did you meet her?" she asked.

"She's NSA," Elly answered quickly, looking at Ned in a way that let him know that's all they were going to say and Ned nodded in agreement, but Sierra raised an eyebrow at both of them as she picked up on the "more" to the conversation.

"Wanna do puzzles with me?" Amira asked. "I'm working on a big one!"

"Sure!" Ned said.

"I'm going to make some coffee," Elly said. He and Sierra moved into the kitchen while Ned was led by the hand to the coffee table where a 150-piece puzzle was laying out.

"She was really tired when I picked her up from Tanzi's today, but you two walk in and she just perks right up like it's Christmas morning!" Sierra said to Elly.

"I really need the pick-me-up _she_ gives today," he said quietly. "This case was nuts." He leaned on the island across from Sierra as his coffee brewed.

"You okay?" she asked just as quietly.

Elly looked at Ned and Amira and shrugged. "It's never easy taking a life," he whispered. Sierra's eyes got huge. "Especially one so young," he added.

"Damn Elly. I'm sorry," she whispered back.

He sighed. "Yeah, me too." He gave her something between a frown and a smile and nodded. The coffee pot clicked that let him know it was done percolating. He turned and poured him a cup, then added sugar and milk. "So! Topic change!" he said at normal voice.

"Definitely!" she said. She got in the fridge and got a Gatorade out and leaned next to Elly on the counter. He noticed that she had that look of someone who was trying to decide whether or not to say something.

"You okay?" Elly asked, his voice tinted with concern.

Sierra took a sharp sigh and tilted her head to the side as she thought about what she wanted to say. "I don't know. Have you-" She stopped and looked down at her phone. "Have you ever gotten that uneasy feeling in your stomach about someone, and you can't decide if you're can trust them or not?"

Elly blew on his coffee to cool it. "I think we all have at some point. Or maybe that's just a federal agent-cop thing. Either way, yes, yes I have. Are you feeling that with someone?"

Sierra felt her face turning red as she blushed. She bit her bottom lip and looked into the next room to see that Ned had Amira enthralled in the puzzle. Elly picked up that this might not be something to discuss around little ears and motioned for her to join him on the back deck. She picked up her phone and followed him out, her Gatorade in hand.

They sat down on the steps overlooking the backyard and the setting sun.

"Okay. Spill. What's going on?" Elly said gently, leaning over to bump her shoulder with his.

Another huge sigh, and then Sierra looked at him before looking back out at the sun. "I started talking to this guy online a few weeks ago. We really clicked, and he had me laughing constantly. I thought that it was just perfect. The pieces were falling into place. I'd found a great family to work for, was working on my degree, got a new apartment, and now this seemingly great guy drops into my life."

"You couldn't be winning harder if you tried! Except… it sounds like there may be a problem with Mr. Perfect?"

"See, that's just it. I can't tell if I'm imagining things, or if he's really… paranoid? Controlling? Demanding? I know his last girlfriend cheated on him and really screwed him over. I can understand him needing to learn how to trust again. I got that. But I'm not her. And at first, things were kinda cute. Like, we went out on a date and it was… magical. The kind of handholding on a beautiful sunset-lit walk kind of date, you know?"

Elly nodded, trying to follow her story.

"Then we went on another, and it was also great. He seemed really… enthralled with me. And it only made me even more into him. He's a great guy. Funny, charming, hot-"

"How hot? Because that's _totally_ a factor in this," Elly said conspiratorially. Sierra held up a finger and got into her photo gallery on her phone. She showed him a picture the two had taken together on their walk, and Elly whistled. "Damn. Okay. Yeah, he's hot. Go on."

"I know, right!? So, I've scored this guy, and he's got a great job at the Social Security Administration helping old people who have had someone commit social security fraud in their names. He totally cares about them and works really hard to help them."

"I see the problem."

"You do?" Sierra asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow at Elly.

"Yep. He's too good to be true."

"EXACTLY."

"So, do you need for me to do a background on him or something?"

"Well, I don't know. That's not why it's not settling with me. See, we started doing this thing where whenever we got home from work we'd send each other goofy pictures. He'd take one with his cat where they're both wearing party hats. And I'd take one with a gigantic box of Frosted Flakes because he and I both love Frosted Flakes. But it became something he's now expecting.

"This week I've been so busy with Amira that I haven't been sending him the pictures until much later, and he's getting really weird about it. I should probably back up a little."

Elly nodded, trying to follow Sierra's whirlwind mind.

"Two Sundays ago I went out with Casey and Rebecca, some friends of mine from school, to close out the summer with a bang, and he started asking for photos of what we were doing.

"At first I gave him a selfie because I had dressed up and was feeling kinda hot, and you know how sometimes you just want to show off. He sent me back a pic with thumbs up and a big smile. So, I felt like he was rooting me on or something. But this is where things started getting… weird. An hour later he asked for a photo of me with all my group of friends. He claimed it was to see all of the hotties, but as soon as he realized Casey was a guy, he started asking questions about why I was going out when I had to work the next morning. And he tried to play it off, but he suddenly got really uncomfortable and eventually it dawned on me why he was asking all these questions. He thought I was going to sleep with Casey because he was simply present."

"That's not cool, Sierra," Elly said, making eye contact with her.

"I know. And I turned my phone off because I was there with my friends, and I wasn't in the mood to deal with his insecurities. I called him when I got home and told him that I am not going to suffer from the inquisition every time I'm out with my friends simply because his ex cheated and he's got trust issues out the ass."

"Good!"

"He apologized profusely for overreacting, and I was kind of surprised that he handled being called out so well. I took it as a sign of maturity that he was able to work through it. I mean, how many times have you heard of a guy getting like that and admitting he was wrong so easily?"

Elly scoffed. "Like never."

"Yeah. So, the next day I get back to the apartment from dropping Amira off, and he's sitting on my stoop with a smile and a bouquet of sunflowers, my favorite, and a bottle of wine. He said he wanted to apologize for being such a dick and _thanked_ me for putting him in his place. We talked, and he was really… great. He told me that he wanted to see if things could become something real between us because he'd felt a great connection with me, and I admitted that I felt one with him too. Annnnnndd…. Thennnnn…"

Elly raised an eyebrow at her. "Crazy hot make up sex?"

"Ohhhhh yeah."

"Been there."

"I hadn't!"

"Really?!"

"Nope."

"How old are you again?"

"29."

"I turn 30 on Friday," Elly said thoughtfully.

"Really?"

"Yeah, that's why we're meeting up with Rise. But anyway. You're 29, and finally had awesome make up sex. And things have gotten creepy again?"

Elly noticed that Sierra had gotten very red in the face again. He snickered a little at her blushing.

"Okay. I'm just going to say it. Here goes. He was really demanding during sex, and I really responded to it, and now he's getting demanding all the time. I feel like I've uncaged a monster."

Elly's eyes widened, and though he kept his mouth shut his jaw dropped. He nodded. "Okay then. So, he's _demanding_ , or are we talking full on BDSM kind of stuff here?"

Sierra threw her head back and groaned in embarrassment.

"BDSM it is!" Elly said with a chuckle. "Look, full disclosure here. I really enjoy that Ned is so domineering in the bedroom. Absolutely _thrive_ off of it. But you know Ned- he's not like that in the day to day world. When we're alone, and things start turning sexual, this whole other Ned comes out. The only other time I've ever seen him with that kind of domineering confidence is in the satellite room at work when he's running huge tactical operations. If he was like that all the time he wouldn't be my Ned. He'd be someone else, and I don't think we'd be together."

"Whoa. That's a _lot_ more than I ever needed to know about Ned!" She playfully shoved Elly who could feel himself going pink in the ears and ducked his head with laughter.

"My point is, it's one thing to like a dominant personality in the bedroom, but a totally different thing when you're talking about the day to day activities of your life. However, there are people who like that kind of control and dominance in their day to day. It's up to you to decide what's right for you. For what it's worth, and for what I know of you, you seem way too independent and strong-minded to enjoy that kind of lifestyle. I could be totally wrong though."

Sierra sighed. "I can't tell if he's just trying to tap into the sexual heat we had the other night, or if it's his real personality."

"I know it's awkward, but you know as well as I do that the best way to find out is to ask."

"How am I supposed to do that?! Oh, hey Quinton, I was just wondering, are you a control freak all the time, or is it only during sex and foreplay?"

"Pretty much. I mean, let him know that you really enjoyed the way he took charge the other night, but it has to translate in whatever way you decide you want it to translate to in the day to day world."

"I like that! I can let him know I'm into it, but not into it."

Her phone rang, and she looked down to find it was Quinton calling. "Speak of the devil."

"Oh! Answer it! I wanna say hi!" Elly said with a chuckle. "Need to see if he sounds as hot as he looks."

Sierra shoved him again as she answered. "Hey baby," she said, putting him on speaker so Elly could hear him.

"Hey Sexy," Quinton said with a sly voice that Elly didn't trust right away.

"Hi Quinton!" he shouted. There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone while Sierra laughed and rebuked Elly.

"Leave him alone, Elly!" she said with a chuckle. "You ass!"

"Uh, hi there. Who are you again?" Quinton's voice had that tone that said the owner was barely containing their rage. Sierra looked upset suddenly, and Elly knew that he had to push.

"I'm Elly! I'm a friend of Sierra's, and a family friend of the little girl she watches. Another NCIS agent like her bosses. I've heard a lot about you!"

"That's funny, I haven't heard anything about _you_ ," Quinton said and Elly and Sierra exchanged expressions.

Elly reached over and whispered in Sierra's ear. "Do you want me to keep going? Really find out if he's pyscho?"

Sierra took a quick breath and nodded.

"Well, that doesn't really surprise me. You've only really known Sierra for a few weeks now. I'm sure you would've gotten to know me sooner or later. We've only known each other for a couple of months, and she tends to keep her friends in law enforcement a secret so she doesn't scare people off."

"I, uh, didn't realize she had friends in law enforcement."

"Yeah there's about, what Sierra? Eight of us? Oh, and then a kick ass forensic scientist and a couple of medical examiners."

"Oh. It's like a whole other life! That's… that's great."

Sierra rolled her eyes. "It's my work life. You and I haven't known each other long enough yet for me to pull you into my work life. That's not something I usually invite my boyfriends to be involved with since it deals with someone else's kid."

"If it's your work life, why are you hanging out after work with some random guy?" Quinton asked.

Sierra was about to explode at him when Elly jumped in. "Chill dude! She dropped off her charge to me and my boyfriend because we're watching her this evening. We've just been catching up. She was just telling me all about you."

"Oh, you're gay."

Elly quirked an eye at the phone. "No, I'm bi, but that's really none of your business."

"Of course it is! Some random guy I've never met is hanging out with my girlfriend. That is definitely my business!"

"Uh, your girlfriend of three weeks. And you've got quite a control issue there. That's not cool, man. Sierra is allowed to have whoever she wants as friends."

"I'm not worried about Sierra's actions. I'm worried about the actions of those around her." Sierra was so angry she could barely speak.

"You-! What?!"

Elly laughed. "Do you even known Sierra at all, man? I've only known her a couple of months and already I know that she isn't going to just roll over and spread her legs for anyone around her who wants her to!" He turned to Sierra and in his most condescending voice pushed the last button. "Damn! What do you see in this nutjob?"

" _That's it!_ " Quinton yelled. "Sierra! You leave there right now! You obviously don't need to be around jerks like him!"

" _EXCUSE ME?!"_ she shouted. "Jerks like _him_?! After you come apologizing to me the other night about doing this exact thing? He's not the control freak! You on the other hand have some serious issues, and you need therapy before you get into any relationship. I don't want to hear from you anymore. Get some help, and for god's sake don't date anyone until you realize that women are not emptyheaded sluts that need you to monitor their every move."

"You're breaking up with me over this guy?!" Quinton yelled back.

"Dude, I was intentionally pushing your buttons to see just how psycho you'd get," Elly said with an amazed shake of his head. "I've seen guys like you. You're controlling, you're paranoid and jealous, and when you let that paranoia get to your head you'll start getting physically abusive on top of the emotional abuse and verbal abuse you're on the precipice of with this call. Sierra's right- get some serious help, and soon."

"Lose my number Quinton," Sierra said before she hung up her phone. She stared at Elly and shook her head.

"I'm sorry," Elly said quietly. "Okay. No. I'm not. I'm not sorry. I'm sorry that Mr. Perfect wasn't Mr. Perfect though. But no. I'm not sorry I pushed him to reveal all that."

"No! I'm so glad you were here to do it! You totally just saved my ass. I feel like I need to put posters up of him around the city to warn other unsuspecting and more naïve women."

"Not to be an ass, but you kinda give off that vibe yourself."

Sierra sighed. "I know. I didn't date much in my twenties like most people do. My mom was sick and I was taking care of her. I wasn't oblivious though. I saw what my friends went through. And I tried to date, but at that age guys don't really understand what level of maturity it takes to deal with the amount of responsibilities I had." She looked up at Elly. "No offense."

"None taken. I still feel like a kid half of the time. Side effect I guess of being caught in a three year old's memory. Can I ask what your mom died of?"

"She had Parkinsons, but eventually died of pancreatic cancer."

Elly hissed with a grimace. "Damn. That's rough."

Sierra nodded. She thought for a moment as she stared out over the dusky sky and chewed her lip. "Dr. Mallard and I had a talk last week about what being a part of this family really means. He told me that if I don't set up walls now I'll be pulled in and become part of this… pack… thing you all have going on."

Elly chuckled. "Pack thing. I've heard us called a lot of things, but never a pack. We seem to get compared to mob families a lot though."

"I can see that," Sierra said with a sideways smile for Elly. "He told me to decide if that's what I want. I've been thinking about it. I can't lie- it's both tempting and terrifying."

"Oh yeah," Elly said, leaning back with his hands propping him behind him and his legs stretching to cross at the ankles. "One minute you're getting shot at, and the next you're holding the love of your life. It's a topsy turvy kinda thing. I can only tell you what it's been for me if you wanna know, take it or leave it." Sierra nodded for him to continue. "This team, this family, has been an absolute rollercoaster. It has built me up, settled me down, started me out on the adventure of the lifetime, and it's given me all I have. I have thriving, respected skills, a professional fast track, people to call friends, even more people to call family, the aforementioned love of my life, the ability to finally love an amazing stepmom, and for the first time since my mom was murdered when I was three, it's given me peace. So yeah- it's a fucking rollercoaster, but it's a rollercoaster that I never want to get off it."

Sierra exhaled a shaky breath. Elly reached up his hand to put on her shoulder. "You okay?" he asked quietly.

She nodded and reached up to wipe a tear off her cheek before she looked at Elly. "I just could really use some peace, and people to call my own again. A home."

"You couldn't ask for a better one than this one," Elly reassured her. She reached up and put her hand over Elly's and squeezed it.

"Thanks for everything tonight."

"That's what a brother is for," he said with a smirk.

The back door opened out onto the deck casting a glow from the kitchen now that it had gotten dark.

"Amira wants to say goodnight to everyone," Ned called. The two of them got up and headed inside to say goodnight.

"You want to crash here tonight in case douchebag tries to come by?" Elly said softly as they approached the door.

"That would be great. Then I can just take Amira with me in the morning, and you guys can go to work straight from here, and we don't have to do the whole switcharoo thing."

"Douchebag?" Ned asked quietly.

"We'll explain after Amira goes to bed." Ned nodded his understanding.

The three of them followed Amira upstairs to her bedroom in an odd parade. Amira ran up to her bed and jumped up into it, pushing and pulling stuffed animals into just the right place that she could snuggle between them. Ned sat on the edge of her bed and moved to cover Amira with her fleece blanket. It was a nice light summer weight, and it was covered in blue, purple and pink dots and stripes in random patterns.

"You ready to call Gibbsy and Tony?" Elly asked, flipping open the tablet.

"They're too busy," Amira said with a pout. Everyone in the room exchanged surprised looks. They'd all noticed that Amira had been a little down that day, but they assumed she was just missing her dads.

"They are _never_ too busy to talk to you," Ned said. "I don't think there is a single thing in the world that they would stop doing to talk to you if you wanted to talk."

Elly nodded an affirming nod and sat next to Amira, putting an arm around her. "Why are you saying that?"

Amira just pouted and looked down at Dirt. She looked angry and sad at the same time.

Sierra sat on the floor next to the bed so she could lean on the mattress and look up into Amira's eyes. The little girl stubbornly looked away. "Did something happen at Tanzi's today?" she asked gently, reaching up to push a loose curl behind Amira's ear. Amira buried her face in Dirt and turned towards the wall.

The three adults exchanged another look at the obvious sore nerve Sierra had just hit. "It's okay to talk about it." Elly rubbed her small back.

"They went away," Amira said with both anger and despair in her voice.

"They just went on vacation, Munchkin," Ned said, resting his hand on Amira's foot to get her attention. "They're coming back."

Sierra looked at Ned and then Amira, biting her lower lip as she thought about what to say next. "Did Tanzi say she was going on vacation today?" Amira turned to stare at Sierra with angry eyes and shook her head no. "Then what has you scared that they're not coming back? You've been fine all week, so something had to of happened today that has you worried." Sierra kept her voice calm and gentle despite the way Amira was looking at her, which quite honestly unnerved her. She'd never seen Amira angry like this.

The tablet started making a series of beeping noises that indicated Tony and Jethro were calling on Skype. Elly grabbed the tablet and answered. He didn't know what else to do.

"Hi… everyone?" Tony said as he saw the group of them around a very distraught looking Amira. "What's going on?"

"Not really sure," Sierra said. "We went to tuck Amira in, and were going to call you when she started saying you guys _went away_." She gave the camera a worried look.

Jethro's face got closer to the screen. "Hey! Munchkin! What's going on?" His voice was worried and full of care. "You know we'll be home on Sunday. We miss you a lot." Amira glared up at the camera, still partially nuzzling her bear. Tony and Jethro shared a look and a raised eyebrow.

"Sierra?" Tony asked. "Can you take us across the hall for a minute?"

"Sure." She got up from the floor and kissed Amira on top of the head. "We'll be _right_ back! I promise." She picked up the tablet and went into the guest room. "Something happened today while she was at Tanzi's. I don't know what, but when I asked her what was wrong and if something had happened there she showed a serious tell."

"The only time I have ever seen a look like that on her face was when I grounded her for running in the house," Tony said. "I didn't think I could ever feel so bad again, but this tops it. Have you called Miram to see what happened?"

"Not yet. I dropped her off happy as a lark, met with my advisor, came back and she was worn out. Fell asleep in the car on the way back to the house to meet the guys. And she and Ned have been playing for the past couple of hours while Elly and I caught up. No idea what's going on."

"What did she say to you?" Jethro asked, though not with any blame to his voice.

"We asked if she was ready to call you two, and she got really quiet and huffy and said that you were too busy for her. We rejected that, and after the silent treatment to some questions she finally just said really quiet and kinda creepily that you "went away"."

"Okay!" Tony said, a little panic in his voice. "I'm calling Miram. We'll figure it out. Hang tight and we'll call you back."

A hand reached for the screen, and it went blank. Sierra decided not to head back to the bedroom without the guys on Skype. She was worried that would deepen Amira's issues. So, she sat on the bed and waited thinking about the evening and how weird it had turned out.

Tony meanwhile was dialing Miram on Skype to place a voice call. Jethro was talking him through the situation so he didn't freak out on the woman. "She probably has no idea what's going on either. Amira probably took something out of context or had a fight with Tanzi or something. Just remember to keep the blame out of your voice until we know what happened."

"Hello?"

"Miram? It's Tony."

"Hi Tony! Are you back from Italy?" she asked in confusion.

"No. We just tried to call Amira and she's mad at us. Sierra said her mood took a turn after she came home from your place today. We were just wondering if she had a fight with Tanzi or something."

"No? No fights. It was just the opposite. Tanzi was having a hard day and Amira was the sweetest remedy."

"Miram, it's Jethro. Why was Tanzi having a hard day?"

"Her cousins had come to the United States two months ago and have been going through our program at the church. They were finally moved last night when they had the opportunity. We didn't get to say goodbye. I won't be able to contact them for a few months. I know they will be safe, but Tanzi was quite broken up about it."

Tony and Jethro exchanged looks of realization. "That's it," Tony said. "Amira saw Tanzi's cousins leave, and how sad Tanzi was, and now she's worried we're just going to leave and not come back, too."

"Oh, no! I am sorry. I did not think of that." Miram was as upset as the two of them.

"It's not your fault Miram," Jethro said.

"Yeah, it's nobody's fault," Tony added. "She's going to have to learn to trust us and believe that we're not going away."

"I did not know she was having problems with that," Miram said. "With Leyla…" Her voice broke and they could all hear her swallow.

"Yeah," Jethro said with a sigh.

"Would you like for me to talk to her? Tanzi's cousins will be somewhere safe enough to call in three months and at six months we can visit them. In two years, once they have become citizens, they will be free to go wherever they like. Maybe knowing these things will help."

"I think that would be good to know, but not at the moment. I think we need to call her back now. Thanks for the insight, Miram." Jethro kept his voice gentle.

"Very well. I hope she feels better."

"Thanks," Tony said, ending the call. He connected to Sierra again as he looked at Jethro and shook his head. "I'm dying to hold her! I want to be able to teleport to her, hug her, and then come back here."

"She's got to get used to us leaving and coming back. Work is going to have us do that pretty often. She needs to know we're always going to come back." The link was finally made and Sierra came up on the screen.

"What's up?" she asked quietly.

"We found out that Tanzi's cousins were relocated last night as part of a refugee program, and they didn't get to say goodbye to Tanzi. Tanzi was upset, Amira tried to make her feel better, but now…"

Sierra closed her eyes as she understood what was going on. "Okay. Taking you back to Amira." She got up and headed across the hall. Amira was tucked into Elly's arm looking rebellious. Sierra handed Elly the tablet and sat back down on the floor.

"Munchkin," Jethro said softly. "Munchkin, look at me." Amira shook her head no and buried her head against Elly's chest.

"Amira," Tony said. "We heard about Tanzi's cousins leaving." Amira turned over sharply and buried herself under the blankets. Elly and Ned exchanged looks as they realized the connection between the visit with Tanzi and her dads being gone.

"Munchkin, we'll be home in a few days. We love you so much, and we're never going to leave you for more than a week or two at a time. And we promise that whenever we do have to leave, you'll always be safe and sound with our family. You're safe, we're safe, and we're coming home."

Amira sat up and looked at him. She reached for the tablet. "You're coming home?"

"On Sunday," Jethro said.

"No! Right now!" Amira screamed, tears starting to come sluicing down her cheeks.

Tony reached for Jethro's hand, squeezing it within an inch of his life as he tried to stay strong. "We'll be home on Sunday. You're going to have so much fun over the next few days that you won't even remember we're gone. You'll be fine until we get back."

"NO!" she screamed and then started to throw the tablet. Ned reached out and snagged it from her right as it was about to leave her hand. "RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!" She broke down in sobs and hid back under the blanket with her bear. Elly tried to rest a hand on her shoulder and she shook him off.

Sierra stood up. "Why don't we leave you alone for a little bit Amira. I'm going to stay here tonight. If you want me, I'll be on the couch." She motioned for Elly and Ned to come with her. Ned looked at Amira in a panic. He didn't want to leave her. Elly got up though and pulled Ned to his feet.

"If you need us Princess we'll be right across the hall or downstairs," Ned said, his voice distraught. The three took the tablet with them as they made their way to the living room, and all crammed on the couch as they set the tablet on the table so that Jethro and Tony could see them all and they could all see them.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to leave her alone right now?" Tony asked Sierra. "It's just, she's this upset because she's afraid she's going to be left alone."

Sierra nodded. "We need to establish and maintain healthy expectations of coming and going right now. If we were to stay with her we'd be reinforcing the outburst and negative behavior, and she'll use it to get attention again in the future. We don't want to reward or feed that kind of behavior. We're close by, and that's enough. She'll come to us when she's ready."

"Makes sense," Jethro said, rubbing his jaw from where he'd been grinding his teeth for the past few minutes. "Thanks for staying with her tonight. You didn't have to do that."

"Not a problem. Elly had already invited me to crash for another reason. Long story."

Tony raised an eyebrow as he looked at Jethro at that, but left it alone.

"Hope that's okay," Elly said, noticing the quirk.

"No problem at all," Tony said. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, fine," Sierra blew off. "You're going to have your hands full when you get home. She's not going to let this go easily. Have you found her a therapist yet?"

Tony and Jethro shared a look. "We haven't really felt a need since she stopped having nightmares and sleeping with us."

Elly knew he should keep his opinions to himself, this wasn't his child after all, but he couldn't help it. "She lost her mother to a terrorist murderer at five years old. She needs a therapist."

Tony sighed and Jethro slouched. "We know," Tony said. "It's just… whenever we talk about Leyla things seem to go so well-" "Until that night," both he and Jethro said at the same time.

Jethro took over. "We'll be talking about some great memory, and Amira will be so happy and just brings the memory to life, and then that night she's crawling into bed with us because she's-"

"Scared, upset, sad…" Tony interrupted.

"Therapy will help her be able to talk about Leyla in a way that's healthy. It will let her cherish the memories, not be afraid of them. And there will be plenty of those nights where she's upset until she's making progress, and then those nights will be fewer between."

Ned opened his mouth without thinking. "And that will help you guys remember her in a good way, too."

Jethro looked away from the camera with another sigh and Tony reached up to squeeze his shoulder.

"If you don't show her healthy habits she can emulate, no one will." Elly's voice was kind, but his words were damning. "Even I've started going back to therapy."

"Really? Tony asked. "Other than Ducky?"

Elly nodded. "Yeah, I mean, my mom was murdered when I was three. I couldn't admit that I loved my stepmom until two months ago even though she's amazing, my father recently disowned me because I got engaged to a man that happens to be a coworker, I'm working to build a relationship with my brother, and now I have a much too strong bond with my work family which could be killed at any moment in the line of duty. You're damn right I started going back to therapy."

"Well, good for you!" Sierra said with a smile and a shove on the knee.

"Thanks," Elly said with a smile.

"I have to insist that this becomes a priority," said Sierra as she struggled to pull her confidence together. "Otherwise you two aren't the only ones who will have their hands full."

Both men nodded. "We'll make it a priority," Tony said.

"We were going to look into vacation ideas tonight for someplace we could take her so that she gets a special vacation, too," Jethro said.

"That could be good," Sierra said. "She'll understand what a vacation is better, and that you always have to come home from them. Could reinforce that."

"Does this mean you guys are going to leave for another week?" Ned asked, trying not to sound as pathetic as he felt at the idea of Tony and Gibbs being so far away again for so long.

"Probably not until Amira has her fall break," Tony said reassuringly. He saw the looks on both Elly and Ned's faces and tried not to smile. It felt good to be needed and wanted by his team, but it also had him worried that they were alone right then.

"I'm sure you can handle it," Jethro said with a smirk, having also read the expressions.

"Just because we can doesn't mean we want to," Elly muttered, trying not to cross his arms and pout like he had that morning.

"So where are you thinking about taking her?" Sierra asked.

"Disney," Tony said with a smile.

Ned's face lit up. "I wanna go!"

"Yeah, Boss! Can we do a team field trip?!" Elly asked excitedly.

"You guys have a wedding to plan and a honeymoon to go on!" Tony said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, but…" Elly said, losing that fight with his pout.

"It could be like our wedding present!" Ned damn near whined.

"I don't think Vance could handle all of us being gone for the week," Jethro said, trying to insert some sensibility into the conversation.

"Do you guys have a honeymoon picked out yet?" Sierra asked them, turning towards the two men on her left.

"We've tossed around some ideas, but we haven't decided. We're thinking we may need to push it out if we decide to get a house," Elly said from the end of the couch, leaning forward to look past Ned to Sierra.

"A house?" Tony asked.

Both men nodded with smiles.

"We were going to start looking online tonight to see what we want in a place," Ned said excitedly, turning to look at Elly with that sparkle in his eyes that gave away just how much he loved him.

"That's a big responsibility," Jethro said. "Are you up for that?"

Both men nodded confidently. "Yeah," Elly said with a smile. "We're kinda at the point where we're like, go big or go home."

Ned chuckled and shook his head. "It's not really like that, Boss. Don't let him scare you. We just really like the idea of having a home to home to, you know, like you two have."

Jethro and Tony smiled at each other. "Well," Jethro started. "If we're going to be an influence on you, I'm glad it's a good one."

"Yeah," Tony said with a chuckle. "There are so many bad habits you could be picking up from us, if making a home is how you emulate us, I say we're not doing too bad."

Sierra smiled and shook her head. "You two…" she said softly. Tony and Jethro looked back at her endearingly.

They all got quiet for a few moments, and then Tony sighed. "I guess she's not coming down, huh?" he asked.

Sierra shook her head. "She's probably going to want to talk to you sometime tomorrow morning though."

"I don't care what time, wake us," Tony said, eyes wide and sad.

"Any time," Jethro reiterated.

"We will," Sierra reassured.

"Well Boss," Elly said. "You guys go do your thing. We're going to go look at houses online and get some ideas. Maybe tomorrow we can exchange pictures- our house hunting ideas with your Mount Vesuvius pics."

"I forgot all about the pictures!" Tony said with a frown.

"It's okay, Boss," Ned said. "Amira should be able to look at them too when she calms down."

"Okay," Tony agreed. "Goodnight everyone."

"Goodnight, guys," Sierra said, reaching for the tablet to turn it off. She laid back on the couch and sighed heavily. "What a shitty night!" she exclaimed under her breath, then turned to the guys. "Present company excepted, of course."

"No offense taken," Elly said as he slouched back into the couch, too."

"So, what's up with this douchebag?" Ned asked her, raising an eyebrow. "Whose ass do we need to go kick?"

Sierra laughed and looked up a Ned's serious expression. She felt something click inside, and she knew the answer to the question Ducky had posed. She was going all in.


	17. Chapter 17

_Hey folks! Sorry this is so late. Life and all that. I hope you enjoy!_

 **Chapter 17**

Ziva walked into the bullpen, a smile on her face and a plot on her mind. She didn't want to tell the team she and Dion were engaged until Gibbs and Tony were home. She had an idea though, and she hoped that she could enlist Abby's help to put it into place.

She looked over at McGee as she said hello and sat behind her desk to boot up her computer. She was surprised to see him looking so tired.

"McGee? Did you not rest yesterday?"

Tim looked up at her and gave her a small smile. "I tried. Talked to the boss."

"Really? How are they enjoying their trip?"

"They're doing great. I guess I just needed the reassurance."

Ziva felt concern flood her. She got up and moved closer to his desk so they could talk a little more privately. "What did you need reassurance about?" She leaned casually against his desk.

Tim shrugged. "Just that I'd done the right thing the other day."

Ziva nodded her understanding. She knew that Tim never took taking a life well. "You did, McGee. And you have done well with leading the team. I have not wanted to strangle you once." She smiled down at him. He smiled a genuine smile back.

"Thanks, Ziva. I know in my head that it was the right thing, but I have a hard time reconciling it in here." He tapped his chest. Ziva knew that despite how much of a brainiac McGee could be, when it came to taking a life he was all heart. She tried to relate, but it was hard for her to do.

"All I can do is tell you that I believe you did the right thing. And I am pretty sure everyone else believes so as well. Only you can decide if you did though. Elly certainly believed it was the right thing to do. Maybe you should talk to him about it."

"Maybe," Tim agreed. "Boss was pretty good about it all though. And Abby has been really supportive. I'd hate to drag Elly into it if he's dealing with things himself."

Ziva glanced over her shoulder to where Elly was joking with Greg and Ned. "He seems to be doing pretty well with it."

"Yeah, but…"

Ziva nodded her understanding. "Just let me know if there is anything I can do for you."

"Thanks, Ziva," Tim said.

"I take it Abby is in?" she said, heading back towards her desk.

"Yeah, she's in her lab."

"I believe I will go pay her a visit."

"Okay," Tim said, setting himself back on the task of filling out all of the paperwork from the case that the team leads had to do.

Ziva bounced down the stairs to the lab with that smile on her face again. She tried to rein it in. She'd thought this through and was prepared to carefully proceed, though knew she might have to disclose her engagement as part of the conversation if backed into a corner. She didn't think she would though if she followed her plan.

"Hi Abby," she greeted as she made her way into the lab.

"Ziva!" Abby said, turning around to greet her. She turned back to her computer and tapped the keys to lock it down before coming over to the evidence table where Ziva was now standing. "To what do I owe the honor?"

"I had an idea, and I thought I would run it by you."

"Shoot," Abby said, smiling brightly.

"We have all had a hard week, and I know that there is still much to go. I thought it might be nice if we did another team dinner at the restaurant when Gibbs and Tony get back on Sunday."

"Oh! That sounds great! Tim is so depressed, and I think it would be so good for all of us to go hang out and relax for the evening."

"I thought so, too. We had such a great time last time and I wanted to invite everyone. I thought maybe we could welcome back Gibbs and Tony, and we could try to put this horrible week behind us."

"I am all about this! Want to send a message to the group text?"

"I was going to, but I wanted to make sure someone would be able to support it. I know everyone has a full plate right now."

"I'll totally be your hype-woman on this! The Gibbses are catching a 6:20AM flight out, and should be home by 5:30PM. I'm really hoping they'll be up for this after such a long flight."

"I hope so, too. I think McGee could use the time with them. He does not look too great this morning."

Abby frowned. "Yeah, he's really taking killing that kid pretty hard. I mean, he was totally in the right, but you know McGee. He's not going to be okay with that. He wouldn't be okay with it if he was 40 years old, but 18?" Abby chewed her lip and cocked her head to the side as she thought.

"We will just have to help him though it," Ziva said with a nod.

"I think dinner on Sunday will definitely do that!" Abby said, perking back up immediately. "I'm feeling much happier just thinking about it! And I definitely want another piece of Angel's chocolate mousse cake. That was amazing!"

Ziva smiled. Her plan had worked perfectly. "I shall send the text. We will see what happens."

"Great idea!"

"Thanks, Abby. I am going to head back upstairs. McGee looks like he is buried in paperwork and I am going to see if I can do anything to help him before we get into the gym."

"Oh yeah! Elly's going to kick Sommer's ass! I'm totally coming to watch that."

Ziva smirked. "See you there."

She headed back upstairs and found that Sommers had arrived, dressed to head to the gym, his duffel on the floor next to his desk. She pulled out her phone and texted the group chat.

Ziva: _I would like to invite you all out for dinner at Dion's on Sunday to relax and welcome back the Gibbses._

Elly: _I think we'd totally be down for that! A few adult beverages to put a shitty case behind us. I'm all about it._

Ned: _I second that._

Tim: _Third! That sounds perfect. Thanks Ziva._

Abby: _I can't wait!_

Jimmy: _I'll let Dr. Palmer know :)_

Greg: _I might need to take a raincheck. Let me check in with Tiffany. Her being on bedrest and such…_

Ziva: _I would completely understand if you cannot come. How is Tiffany?_

Greg: _We went to the doctor yesterday and she's being put on a bunch of supplements and some light hormone therapy. They don't think it will hurt the baby, but we're watching for any complications. She's still on bedrest though and will be until she delivers. They're talking about possibly scheduling a C-section to prevent any complications during birth. We'll know in another month or so._

Abby: _Well, I'm glad she's got you to help her through it all._

Greg: _Yeah, I really need to be there more though. She's not doing so well emotionally with it all._

Elly: _I think that's the fucking understatement of the year, Greg._

Ned: _Two words: Alarm Clock_

Greg: _It should get better now that she's on these meds. We'll see what happens. I'm hopeful!_

Ziva: _Then we will be hopeful with you._

Greg: _Thanks, Ziva._

Ned: _Can we talk for a minute about how excited I am that Elly's about to kick Sommers' ass?_

There were soft chuckles all around the bullpen.

Tim: _On that note…_

Tim stood up. "We all ready to head downstairs?"

"Oh yeah," Sommers said, standing up and stretching. "I could definitely use a good workout."

Tim and Ziva exchanged smiles as they tried to repress their laughter.

The group all grabbed their duffels and headed for the stairs. It seemed counterproductive to take the elevator to the gym. They disappeared into their respective locker rooms and changed. Ziva texted Abby to let her know that they were all getting ready, and then tucked her phone into her locker.

She headed out into the gym to find Sommers and Elly both stretching. Ned, Greg and Tim came out to join them, and they all started their stretching routines. By time they were all limber Ziva noticed that Abby had come into the room with three other women, Cara, Seline, and Heather, all of whom had previous beefs with Sommers. The message had gotten out, and Ziva was surprised that Abby would have done something like that, but at the same time was trying to suppress a bright smile and losing. She went over to Elly and nudged him to look towards the bench along the wall by the entrance.

"No pressure or anything!" Elly said with a wink.

"I don't think you'll have anything to worry about." She raised an eyebrow at him and moved over to where Greg was waiting for her on a mat nearby.

Ned and Tim had already started some blocking exercises together, taking them rather seriously for the situation they were in. Ziva went over to Greg and nodded at him.

"So, what are we doing today?" he asked.

"I think it is a day to release some tension," she said.

"I full heartedly agree. What do you want to do?"

"Freestyle, but I'll hold back on the more technical martial arts."

"Sounds good. Set?"

"Go," she said. She started with a low kick that he jumped and he lunged to wrap an arm around her shoulders to pull her down. She spun and ducked, elbowing Greg in the stomach, pulling some of the intensity. Greg was distracted then because Elly and Sommers had taken their mat and begun. Both men looked smug, ready to take the other down, and Ziva stopped to watch them as well. So had Tim and Ned.

"Show me whatcha got," Elly said, using his fingers to gesture that Sommers should start. Sommers came at him to punch, Elly blocked, dropped and spun to kick Sommers out from below, but his kick was high, swiping him behind the thighs rather than his knees causing Sommers to land on his back rather than his ass when he fell, surprising him. Sommers rolled to the side as Elly moved as if to come down on him, but it was a feint. Elly spun sideways and kicked Sommers hard in the jaw as he got up.

The smug light left Sommers' eyes as he reached up to crack his jaw. Before he could move forward again though, Elly was moving at him. Sommers crossed his arms at the wrists to block the next move, which succeeded, but Elly was fast and kicked him in the side.

Sommers was getting angry. He came at Elly with a flurry of punches and Elly ducked and blocked each one. Elly let a couple of punches out that caused Sommers to back up. Elly had to admit that he was light on his feet. He knew how to use that to his advantage though. He got him to the edge of the mat and then turned his back, feigning to be giving him a second to catch his breath, but he knew people like Sommers wouldn't give up the opportunity to attack from behind and turned to elbow him in his face as he did so. He was pretty sure he broke Sommers' nose, but the bloodshed did nothing to stop them.

"Son of a bitch!" Sommers shouted. Elly wasn't smiling any more. He was thinking about Sommers' comments over the past week. He thought about his general unhelpful attitude and his comment in the meeting the other day about the GIbbses. He was angry now. There was a lot more to be angry about, but he held that back in a safe place in his mind to channel later. This man didn't deserve that wrath, but he did deserve what Elly had in store for him.

Sommers dove for Elly who moved out of the way and tripped Sommers who went for a dive across the mat.

"Get up!" he said coldly. Sommers glared up at him with defiance. He suddenly sprung to his feet and came at Elly with his fists ready to wail on him. His temper was flaring and his arms were flailing as Elly ducked and blocked each punch expertly.

The entire gym had stopped to watch what was happening on the mat. Elly suddenly jumped on him, tucking his leg behind Sommers' and locking Sommers' head in the crook of his armpit as he rolled them in a somersault and pinned him to the mat. It appeared that he had Sommers down for the count, but then he got up again.

"Again! This time don't let me pin you," Elly directed as if he were simply trying to teach him the move, not a lesson. Sommers' eyes were alight when he got up. They were burning with rage, which is what Elly wanted to see. He had his own to let out, but unless his opponent was at his level, it wouldn't be a fair fight. _Let his anger make him reckless while I use mine to channel my energy,_ he thought as he stood with his arms out. "Haven't landed one yet. What do they even teach at FLETC these days?" he baited.

Sommers was on his feet again, fists up, but he wasn't coming at Elly this time. He was waiting for Elly to come at him, which made Elly smirk and nod once slowly. _He's scared. Good._

Elly jumped forward with the intent to kick, but Sommers caught his leg. It didn't do him much good though because Elly had hoped he had the sense to do that. He half-cartwheeled out of his grasp as he used his other foot to kick him in the back of his head.

"Goddamn!" Sommers swore softly. He turned to grab Elly's arm as he found himself back in the upright position. Elly took that moment to clock him hard in the other jaw, making him stumble. Sommers stumbled backwards but stayed upright. He was furious at this point though. He yelled as he came at Elly with the intentions to tackle him, which being a slightly bulkier man, might have worked on anyone else. Elly turned though as Sommers came at him. He grabbed the hunched over man by the back, one arm around each side and kneed him hard in the abdomen. He felt his knees connect with his ribs as much as it did stomach, then pushed him aside so that he landed on the ground groaning.

"I think we're finished here," Elly said, his voice icy. "What do you think?"

Sommers nodded as he clutched his ribs. His nose was bleeding profusely onto the mat. Elly grabbed his towel and water bottle. He went over to Sommers and crouched down, handing him the towel to hold to his nose. "Come on. Let's get you up to Ducky to set that nose." He reached out his hand to pull Sommers up who was baffled by the sudden calm that had come over Elly. He couldn't imagine that gentle tone coming from the man who'd just flattened him.

Elly didn't look at any of the spectators as he gave Sommers a couple of slaps on the back and then led him to the hallway.

Greg turned to Ziva and they nodded at each other. At the same time Ned turned to smile at Tim who smirked and nodded, then they all resumed their training with enthusiasm.

Elly led Sommers to the morgue in silence. They walked in to find Ducky and Palmer laughing, but they stopped immediately at the sight of them.

"Oh, my," Ducky said, putting down the file folders he had in his hand and moving towards them.

"You really should be more cautious training with young Elijah here," he said as he snapped on some gloves then reached to take the bloody towel. "From what I heard he has more martial arts experience than any other agent other than our Ziva."

Sommers gave Elly a look between slit eyes. "Yeah. I figured that out," he said deathly quiet.

"Yes, well, we'll do a quick x-ray and then check to see how easily we can set this break. And my, it looks like your jaw took a hit as well. We'll get scans of that just to be sure. Alright, up you go!" He indicated for Sommers to jump up on the steel table and lay back. Palmer was already wheeling the portable x-ray over to them. It only took a couple of minutes with a couple of directions to turn this way and that for Ducky to get what he needed.

"These will only take about ten minutes to process and we can take a look. You two sit right here." He gave Elly a pointed look and a raised eyebrow, then gestured for Jimmy to join him on the other side of the room while they waited for the results.

The blood was still flowing freely from Sommers' nose, so Elly went to grab some paper towels, then returned to Sommers who had tilted his head back.

"Here, and you want to bend forward with your head between your knees, not tilt it back. You could choke on your own blood otherwise. It's also not good for your stomach. You don't need to puke on top of everything else." He kept his voice gentle and held the towels up to Sommers who glanced at him as he bent forward reluctantly.

After a minute of silence Sommers finally spoke. "Why do I get a feeling that was revenge?"

Elly shook his head, though Sommers couldn't see. "Not revenge, Kyle. A lesson."

Sommers looked up at him. "Surprised you know my name," he said quietly through the hand pinching his bloody nose full of towels.

"Other than you being a first-class douchebag, that's pretty much _all_ I know about you." Elly said calmly, giving him a patient look.

Sommers shook his head slightly and bent again so his head was between his knees, but it was more to hide the shame coloring his face.

"So, what's the lesson?" he asked.

"That you have a lot to learn. But the thing is, you're in the best position anyone could ask for to learn so much. You're working with some of the greatest minds NCIS has ever had come through. Gibbs may be a hard ass, but he's brilliant, and there's a reason everyone is loyal to him. And Ziva is a martial arts expert. If you need to learn to fight, you want her to teach you. And McGee… damn. That man has more talent in his fingers than I can ever hope to have behind a keyboard. Tech might not be your thing, but damn I'm learning so much from him. You're working with goddamn NCIS royalty, but you treat them like third-class citizens. I just don't understand why you're so unhappy and bitter when you should be jumping in jubilation!" Elly's voice was quiet but full of emotion. He was taken by surprise when Sommers jumped up off the table and started yelling, his face bright red.

"Because I don't want to be here! Okay!? Is that what you want to hear?! I. DON'T. WANT. TO. BE HERE!" His chest was heaving and Elly took him in with wide eyes, his arms coming uncrossed as he saw Sommers sway. "I don't want to be a damn agent! I just! I just!" And then Elly was lunging forward to catch him as he passed out.

"Ducky!" he hollered. Palmer rushed over to help lift Sommers back up onto the table.

"Oh, dear," Ducky said, coming over to check his pulse. "He's lost a bit of blood. I think he's just overexerted himself."

"Salts?" Palmer asked.

"I believe so, Mr. Palmer," Ducky said. "Quite a revelation," he murmured as he glanced up at Elly. "Be careful how you handle it, Elijah."

Elly nodded as Palmer placed the smelling salts under Sommers' nose. He gasped and started sitting up. Palmer was quick to stick a rolled-up towel under his head as Ducky lowered him back down.

"Give it a minute, dear boy. You don't need to do that again." Sommers looked around, his cheeks red with embarrassment.

"Did I…?"

"You passed out, but I think you'll be okay. Now, hold still." Ducky reached up and twerked Sommers' nose until there was a loud crack.

"Ow! Fuck!" Sommers swore.

"There you go," Ducky said with a small smile. "You'll stop bleeding shortly. Clean break. Mr. Palmer, I believe some ice will help." He turned to cross the room and wash his hands.

"Yes, Doctor. I'll be back," he said with a smile for Sommers, and then the two men were alone again.

Elly jumped up to sit on the metal table across from Sommers. He waited until Jimmy had given Sommers the icepack and then retreated before he started talking. "So… you don't want to be an agent. Then why become one?" His voice was calm, but he held back the sympathy and confusion.

Sommers sighed heavily. "My dad."

Elly nodded. "I can get that. My dad and brother are both Navy. They totally thought I would follow in their ranks, but I became a cop. NCIS was kind of a compromise, but luckily, I love it here. Great people."

Sommers chuckled sardonically. "Yeah, everyone here is _so_ great. Gag me."

"I think I've done enough to you. Gagging is off the table. But you see? That's just it. They really _are_ great. And what makes that okay is that every single one of them has a story to tell. And every single one of them has earned their happiness. You don't know any of their stories though because you've been too much of a dick for them to trust you with them."

"There's that word again," Sommers said with another chuff of a dark chuckle.

"What word?"

"Dick. Ziva called me that the other night." He shook his head, then hesitantly continued. "Then she told me a little of her story. I had no idea her dad was the head of Mossad."

"Did she tell you that he had her kill her own brother when he went rogue?"

"Holy shit! Are you serious?!" Sommers sat up with a jolt, his face contorted in a horrible expression as the bruises were starting to make themselves apparent and the swelling was distorting his… everything.

Elly nodded. "Let me give you my story. The least I could do after pummeling you." That earned a small eyeroll, but Elly was surprised to see Sommers was paying attention.

"When I was three years old, my mother was slaughtered in our home while I was alone with her. I came downstairs from my nap and found her dead body, which I was left alone with for hours until my older brother came home from school. Until recently, I saw her dead body every time I closed my eyes. Every single fucking time. I dream about her constantly, and she's always sliced up like she was then. The smell of blood makes me have nightmares, like I'll probably have tonight from smelling your blood. Like I do every night after a bloody crime scene. Only now it's not just my mom I see, but the members of this team. The people that mean something to me. That mean everything.

"My dad was on a ship more than he was home, so my dear stepmother had to raise a traumatized child on her own. She was great, but I'm only just now, this summer, able to tell her I love her. And that was only after my dad disowned me after finding out I'm in love with a man. She's divorcing him because of how he treated me." Elly was satisfied to see the drawn and pale expression on Sommers' face.

"So yeah, we all have our stories. We all have our shit. There is nothing in this world stopping you from doing what you actually want to be doing other than some idea in your head that daddy dearest wants you to be a cop. So, tell me this- are you going to give this team, my fucking family, a chance? Are you going to defend us in the field, learn as much as you can from us as we learn from each other, or are you going to keep being a miserable know-it-all narcissist? Or maybe, just maybe, are you going to grow a pair of balls, grow the hell up, and go after what you _really_ want to be doing?"

"Damn." Sommers gulped.

"You know, Elly, when I said to be careful with how you proceeded, I didn't quite expect it to go like that," Ducky said, coming over to stand between the two tables the men were now sitting upright on.

"No, Dr. Mallard. It's okay," Sommers said, grimacing. "I, um. I deserved that." He looked up at Elly. "I'm sorry about your mom. Mine walked out, but I can't imagine… that. That really blows."

Elly nodded solemnly. "And the thing is, we all have our stories. We've _all_ got them. Everyone does. Our teams especially do. That's why we hold on so tightly to each other. We've earned each other's respect and trust, and it's invaluable. What we found though was that more than all of that, we came to love each other. We're a family because none of us have healthy families to be a part of. So yeah, sometimes we're so sappy that others want to gag themselves, but fuck 'em, because we've _earned_ our happiness. Are you going to earn it?"

Sommers looked shell shocked.

"I…" He swallowed and looked at Jimmy and Ducky. "I think it might be too late for that," he said quietly.

"That depends on what you want. You tell me right now that you want to try to find a family here, that you want to learn from the best, that you want to earn that trust and respect that we all have for each other, and I can guarantee you a clean slate. I can make that happen. But you have to really want it. It's going to take sacrifice of pride, of ego, of your attitude."

Sommers stared down at the floor. He didn't know what to say to that.

"I tell you what. You think about it today. You mull it over. You make a decision. Either you want to be a real part of this team, and you start over, or you leave. Tomorrow morning. If you're not all in, then your resignation is on Vance's desk by 0800."

Sommers nodded.

"Good. Then I'm glad we've had this little talk." Elly jumped down from the table and turned for the door.

There was a long silence as Elly disappeared, then Sommers spoke. "I guess now I know how he got to be SFA so young."

Ducky and Palmer both stared at him.

"Kinda' intimidating when he needs to be. I… I never would've expected that from him. Wouldn't have taken him for having the balls."

Ducky shook his head. "Let me ask you something Agent Sommers. What is it that you really want to do? Obviously, you don't want to be an agent. What else would you do?"

Sommers looked a little embarrassed. "I wanted to go into forensics."

"Ahhh… I see. I can imagine how that was twisted into this predicament. Have you thought about seeing if you could study under Abigail between cases? She's not one to take an assistant, but occasionally taking a student might be okay."

"Do you think she would?" Sommers asked, a glimmer of hope coloring his voice.

"Not a chance," Jimmy said. "Not right now. Abby is the type to hold grudges. You'd have to earn it."

Ducky nodded his agreement. "Indeed. You've affronted the most important people in her life. As Elijah pointed out so… delicately… everyone has a story. That includes Abigail. Her position in this family is coveted. Loved by one and all, and fiercely gives love in return. Which means it will take quite a long time to forgive the comments made in that meeting on Friday."

Sommers winced painfully. "Yeah… I was missing my filter."

"A filter won't fix things," Jimmy said, his arms crossed as he stared at Sommers. "The fact that you even _thought_ something like that is enough to get you kicked out of the family. Try again."

"As you can see, even Mr. Palmer and myself are included in this little community we have. It's the nature of the work. You've made quite the wrong first impression. The defenses are up. What are you going to do to bring them back down?"

"I have no idea," Sommers said with a sullen shrug and hopped down from the table. "I need some time to think."

"Let me leave you with this thought. Abigail is one of the top forensic scientists in the country. She's sought after. Constantly headhunted. You'd be so very lucky to get a chance to work with her, even if only occasionally. If you stay, don't expect a warm welcome from her for months, if not longer. But above all else, I suggest you talk to Jethro. Tell him your story. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to hear a part of his and truly understand the root of why this team works."

"Yeah… Gibbs doesn't seem like much of a talker," Sommers said skeptically.

Ducky shook his head. "It doesn't take a lot of words to understand why things are the way they are around here. Of all of our stories, I personally believe that his is the worst."

Sommers nodded. "Thanks for fixing my nose, Doc." He nodded to Palmer, then headed through the door. He had a lot to think about it.

********WDYG?********

Ellie pulled up in front of the old farmhouse. The dust from the dirt and gravel drive wafted around the truck and announced her arrival. She looked up at the large white house set on a backdrop of wheat and sky. Her eyes fell on the family vegetable garden to the left of the house. It was flourishing and she found herself aching for some fresh strawberries on French toast.

When her eyes moved back to her house she saw her oldest brother standing on the porch. He was leaning against the beam at the top of the stairs as he watched her. She decided to face the music and climbed out of the truck dragging her duffle bag and messenger bag with her.

"Need a hand, sis?" he asked.

"No, I got it. Thanks, George."

"Sure."

She got to the top of the stairs and he put his arm around her, stopping her before she got to the door.

"You okay? You look like hell."

She gave him a pointed look, but he gave her one back. She sighed.

"No, I'm not."

"That's what I thought. Come on, Mom's making your favorite."

"Her famous French toast?"

"With fresh strawberries from the garden. Probably the last good pick we'll get this year. The ultimate comfort food."

Ellie groaned in ecstasy when she opened the front door and the smell of the food hit her senses. She had a flip in her stomach that she didn't like when she saw her other brothers in the kitchen setting the table. She hadn't been expecting them all until later. The fact that they'd all put off working to be there was heartening, but she realized that she'd be telling her story a lot sooner than she expected. She thought she'd have the chance to tell her mom and dad before telling them. It didn't look like that was going to happen.

"Ellie!" Robbie said, coming in from the kitchen and wrapping her in a hug just a second after she managed to drop her things on the couch.

"Hey, Robbie," she greeted as she hugged him back.

"Dad! Ellie's here!" John called from the kitchen.

"Be there in a minute," her dad called back.

"Okay everyone. Give Ellie some space."

"Mom," Ellie said with a sigh as she headed for the kitchen. Her mom was a slim woman of about 5'5" with gracefully aging blonde hair. She sat a platter of French toast on the table and as she turned to Ellie found herself with arms full of her daughter. Ellie hugged her mom tightly and the embrace that was returned was full of the security that Ellie craved. Her mom was the strongest woman she knew. She kept the farm running when her dad battled cancer ten years earlier and nursed him back to health. She pushed her daughter to follow her dreams and not take second best for anything. She loved her more than life itself. As her mom held her tightly she felt the pain start to fade into the background and the fear dissipated completely. She was safe now. Her family would support her as she took on her healing and they would protect her as she faced the demons the past week had created.

Her mom pulled back and looked into Ellie's tired eyes. After a long searching look she nodded once. "Let's eat." She let Ellie go with a weary smile and Ellie took her traditional place at the table. Her dad came and joined them at the head of the table nearest to Ellie and stopped to kiss her on top of the head as was their custom. She smiled at him and then turned to the food.

They ate and talked about plans for the harvest which was looking to be very good that year. Ellie wasn't oblivious to the concerned looks she was getting from everyone. John's penetrative gaze made her nervous. He was probably the most playful of her brothers, but he was also able to read anyone like a book with that gaze. She knew that there was nothing hidden from him, especially when it came to her.

She was eating slowly, her stomach trying to settle as she did her best to enjoy her food. She finally couldn't eat another bite and sat her fork down. Everyone stopped and looked at her. It wasn't like her to not finish a meal, but especially not her favorite meal.

"It was delicious, Mom. Thank you," she said, trying to sound reassuring.

"Must be something pretty bad if you're not eating," her dad murmured.

Ellie nodded. "Yeah, it is. I'll wait until you all finish eating though. This doesn't need to be talked about while you're enjoying such a great meal."

Her dad nodded but her brothers all exchanged glances of concern. Everyone's food went down a little faster after that, despite Ellie getting up to get the coffee pot and pouring a large mug full.

Her brothers made quick work of taking everyone's dishes and washing them, and then everyone sat back at the table with coffee mugs. Ellie shook her head. She had thought about what she was going to tell them all day the day before as she drove, and all night last night in the hotel room as she fought with sleep. Now her mind couldn't decide on a method.

"Honey?" her mom asked gently. "Is it about Jake?"

Ellie nodded and looked at her mom, then her brothers, then her dad. He nodded encouragingly at her and reached out to take her hand that was fiddling with the edge of her placemat.

"What's wrong sweetheart? What happened?"

"It's a long story."

"Start from the beginning," her dad coaxed.

"Okay."

She began with telling them about the night that Mark died. There were winces of concern, but still nothing terrible.

"You talked about Mark sometimes," her mom said. "I'm sorry to hear that he's gone."

"Thanks, Mom. That's just the beginning I'm afraid."

She continued telling them about the weekend, and then when she told them about how she'd come home and she'd heard Jake on the phone, her voice broke. She took a drink of her coffee and finished her revelation.

"Oh my God," John said.

"Are you serious?" George asked. Ellie nodded, having a hard time meeting their eyes. She stared at the pattern on the table cloth as she continued, explaining her escape from the apartment. She talked about how she was working with NCIS and how everyone was really great, but then they found out the truth about what Jake had really been doing. As she told them that he was responsible for dozens of murders, torturing people on video for the pleasure of it, they were all stunned. The look on her mom's face was going to be permanently etched into her mind forever. Her dad's hand squeezed hers again and didn't let go.

"Sweetheart, are you sure it was Jake?" he asked. He'd always liked Jake, and Ellie was pained to nod her affirmation.

"No doubts. Whatsoever. He admitted to it all in interrogation, as well as admitting to the sexual relationship he had with his partner."

"He was doing all of this with another woman?" Robbie asked, jaw dropped.

"No," Ellie said, her eyebrows raising at him. "It was a man. Well, actually, it was a boy. He was 16 when they started two years ago."

"Oh, gross!" Robbie said, and the faces of her entire family mirrored the sentiment.

"Oh, God!" her mom gasped.

Ellie nodded. "Yeah. They killed 29 people together total. And his little boyfriend, his name was Christian, came after me after we arrested Jake. With his own protégé. They drugged me, kidnapped me, and took me to a warehouse where they made me watch video of Jake and Christian torturing people together before fornicating with each other _and_ the body of their victim."

"I think I'm going to get sick," her dad said, squeezing her hand before he stood up and excused himself to the small bathroom off the kitchen. They all sat in silence as they listened to him retch for a couple of minutes, then the toilet flushed and the water in the sink ran. He came back out looking much paler than he had when he first sat down at the table.

"I'm sorry, honey. As you were saying," he said gently.

"I'd just gotten loose when NCIS came and saved me. They killed the two men that kidnapped me and took care of me. Jake is probably going to get the death penalty, and I can't sleep without having panicked dreams that people are kidnapping me. I didn't know what to do, so I came home."

"Jesus Christ," John whispered. "I'm so sorry, sis."

"I just… needed to be somewhere I felt safe."

"You're safe here, Ellie," George said, his voice hard. "Anyone tries to get at you here and they'll have to get past all of us."

"There's no one left to come after me. The entire group Jake was running with was killed by Christian, and as I said, Christian and his partner were killed by my friends at NCIS. And Jake is in custody. There's no one coming after me. I wouldn't have put you all in danger and come here if I thought there were."

Ellie realized her mom had tears running down her face. "Did they do anything to you?" she asked through broken voice.

"Not physically," Ellie said, shaking her head. "Just tied me up. It was more the mental… games." She was going to say mental torture, but decided not to associate that word with her for her parents' sakes, but she knew in her heart of hearts that was exactly what it was. "I escaped and was found before anything else could happen."

"What happens now?" her dad asked.

"I file for divorce from Jake, and I may be called to testify at his hearing."

"Would they really make you do that?" John asked.

"I know that they're going to try everything not to," she said. "The people I worked with on this case were really awesome. I think if any of them can take my place, they'd all volunteer to. The truth is, I want to. I want to do my part to put that asshole behind bars. To bring him to justice."

"Atta girl!" George said with a resolute nod.

"George!" her dad and John both exclaimed.

"What?" he asked. "We all know Ellie is one strong and stubborn woman. If she said anything different, I'd be worried about her. Wouldn't you?"

"Ellie," her mom said, and everyone silenced themselves. "What do you need from us?"

"Just to spend time here, doing normal things, I think. To get some sense of normalcy back while I try to digest all of this."

"Take as much time as you need, honey," her dad said.

"Thanks, Dad."

"What did the NSA say about all of this?" John asked.

Ellie had hoped not to address it. She gave a one shoulder shrug. "That they were sorry about everything that happened and to take the time off I need. That I'll need a psych eval when I come back to work. The usual."

"There's nothing usual about this," Robbie said, still in shock.

Ellie slowly turned her mug on the table, her eyes locked on the pattern of the glaze. It was one of her mom's creations. She'd always liked her mugs. She liked the way she let the glaze fade into different colors. She didn't make matching sets. Each one was an individual creation. This one had a shimmer to the glaze like an ultrafine glitter was mixed in, but it was hard to tell until the light hit it. She smiled faintly at it and ignored her family for a moment. She sighed, then looked around at all of them.

"So, what's on the agenda today?" she asked.

"Do you need to rest or be distracted?" John asked.

Ellie gave him a small smile. "Both."

"Then you can come help me in the garden," her mom said.

"Sure," Ellie said. "I'm just going to go put my stuff upstairs and change into something I can get dirty." She got up and headed for the living room to get her stuff, then escaped upstairs. They family was silent until she left, and she was sure that as soon as she was out of ears' reach they would start talking softly about how horrible her situation was. She was grateful they waited until she couldn't hear them. She put her bags down in the spare bedroom and started to get undressed. She pulled her phone from her back pocket and looked at it a moment.

Ellie: _Hey Ned- just wanted to let you know that I made it to OK okay and that I'm with my family._

She started to change but there was a chime back right away.

Ned: _Did you tell them everything? How did they take it? Are you okay?_

Ellie smiled at the phone and replied.

Ellie: _I told them everything after breakfast. It went about as well as could be expected. My dad threw up. And as for if I'm okay… I guess I'm as okay as can be expected as well._

Ned: _I'm glad you're with them. Thanks for letting me know you're there safely. We're all thinking about you. You missed it- Elly kicked Sommers' ass in the gym this morning. Broke his nose and everything._

Ellie laughed out loud and smiled the first real smile she'd smiled in days.

Ellie: _I bet that was a lesson well-learned!_

Ned: _Totally. And of course Elly was super hot doing it._

Ellie smiled harder and shook her head.

Ellie: _Did you get video?_

Ned: _I didn't, but Abby did. She's holding it hostage though. We have to buy it off of her with CaffPow. I'm bringing her one later._

Ellie: _Resourceful! I'm about to go work in the garden with my mom. I'll text you tonight._

Ned: _Take care of you, Ellie._

Ellie: _I will. Thanks, Ned._

She put her phone on top of the dresser and slipped her boots on. She thought about the NCIS team and how they made her feel. A resolve came over her. She was going to meet this Gibbs guy and take a look at applying for the agency again. She wanted to spend more time with these people. She felt somewhere deep inside that they'd be good for her, and she was going to need something to help her recover from this after she stopped hiding at the farm. Focusing on becoming an agent seemed like the right thing to do. She thought for a moment about telling her family about the idea, but decided to wait. She might hate this Gibbs and decide against it. Only time would tell.

She got up and headed for the door ready to get her hands dirty and her mind clear.

********WDYG?*******

Elly came back from the locker room to find everyone else but Sommers was already in the bullpen. He dropped his bag and went over to Tim.

"We need to talk."

Tim raised an eyebrow at him and got to his feet. He locked down the computer and headed for the stairs. He and Elly walked up them side by side and directly into the conference room. Elly closed the door behind him.

"I did something, and it wasn't my place to do it, and I'm sorry. Well… to be honest, I'm not sorry I did it, I'm just sorry that I crossed a line into what should've been your or Gibbs' territory."

Tim sat down in the chair at the head of the table, and Elly sat down next to him.

"What happened?" Tim asked calmly.

"We went to see Ducky to set his nose because I'd broken it, and we had a rather intense conversation. Sommers revealed that he doesn't actually want to be an agent at all. He feels like he was backed into the position by his father."

"Really?" Tim asked, his face contorted in confusion. "But he's so arrogant about it."

"I know. I'm pretty sure it's all for show. He's not happy. So, like I said, we talked. And I wasn't that compassionate, but I explained to him that we all have our stories and that we've earned our happiness and I told him that if he wants to stay and really fix things with us that I'd convince everyone to give him a clean slate, but he'd have to earn his place."

"Okay, that's not too bad. I think if he were to apologize to everyone and try to make things right everyone but probably Abby would be willing to work through it."

"Here's the thing," Elly said, turning pink and rubbing the back of his head. He looked around the room then looked back at Tim with a sigh. "I told him that if he wasn't willing to do that he needed to turn in his resignation to Vance in the morning."

"Oh." Tim looked thoughtful for a moment, his lips slightly parted as he considered that. He blinked and nodded his head. "Okay."

"I'm really sorry. I know that wasn't my place."

"No! It's okay," Tim said, shrugging a little. "We put you in that position by electing you to be the one to take him down in the gym. I hadn't thought it through like that. I think that's fair. Either he gets his shit together and tries, or he leaves. That's the best any of us could do, right?"

Elly nodded, relieved that Tim wasn't pissed.

"But I'm leaving it to you to convince Gibbs not to can him when he gets back if Sommers decides to stay."

Elly winced, then nodded. "Okay. Totally fair."

"Then we're good."

Elly nodded. "Thanks," he said with a relieved sigh.

"And if he chooses to stay, I'll do my best to help convince everyone to give him a second chance, but he has to apologize. He has to put himself out there. He's got to be genuine with us."

"I fully agree. That's the terms I'm thinking as well."

"Alright then." They were quiet a minute. "You broke his nose?" He smirked at Elly who smiled broadly and shook his head, looking around the room again.

"Clean break. Ducky reset it with a snap. I admit, it was satisfying."

"I'm glad you got the point across."

"I guess we'll see tomorrow morning."

"Yes, we will."

********WDYG?********

Jethro followed Tony into the shop. He wasn't used to following Tony as they walked, but he'd found himself doing so more often this trip since Tony was the one who spoke the language. He had to admit that he enjoyed the view it offered him. His eyes glanced over Tony's backside now, but only for a brief moment before he was introduced to the shopkeeper. He was surprised to see that he spoke English really well and talking to Tony in it. Both of them were smiling at each other as Tony complimented him on his English and the man responded with a compliment on Tony's Italian.

"You had something particular in mind, correct?" the man asked when he turned to lead Tony through the shop.

"Yes," Tony said, following him. Jethro trailed after, looking at the wares around him made of all sorts of shades of leather.

The man opened a door with a key and Tony and Jethro found themselves in a tiny hallway leading to a second door. When the first door was closed securely behind them, the man opened the second to reveal a room full of all sorts of leather kinkery.

"Whoa," Tony said with a chuckle. "Quite the collection!" he exclaimed, looking over at Jethro who was a little taken aback by all of the implements in the room. There were leather riding crops, cat-o-nine-tails, harnesses of all sorts of designs and more ways to restrain a person than either man had ever dreamed of.

"Thank you," the man said with a distinguished bow of his head. "It is a craft long in the making. Discretion is valued by my customers, but so is quality."

"I can tell," Tony said. Jethro was somewhat uncomfortable, which was a strange sensation for him that only served to make him even more uncomfortable. He didn't want to know what half of these things were, and he couldn't imagine using anything like the whips on the wall on Tony.

"You wanted some basic restraints if my memory serves me correctly," the man said.

"Yes," Jethro answered for them, regaining a bit of himself as he moved to stand next to Tony. Tony smirked at him and Jethro smirked back.

The man moved to a case on the left wall inside the door and the two joined him. He opened it to show a series of various cuffs and wrist and ankle restraints. There were cuffs that bound to one another, and cuffs with chains that could be attached to four poster beds or bed frames. There was one with two cuffs chained to a collar, and one contraption of four cuffs chained in a small X shape to link hands and feet together with very little room to move, effectively immobilizing the wearer.

Tony reached out to pick up a thick pair of cuffs with a simple belt-like clasp and notches. They were smooth inside but a pattern of crisscrossing lines were stamped along the outside in soft leather. "These are nice and soft," he said, handing it to Jethro to examine.

"Feels nice," he said. He saw a pair that had snaps and had a thought go through his mind. "We might want to think about something like this so that they're quick and easy to remove in case we get interrupted." He reached for the black pair with the bright silver snaps.

"Smart choice," the man said with a smile. "Children at home?" he asked.

"A daughter," Tony said with a smile. "She's going to be five."

"And she's obviously the light of your life," the man said with a warm smile. "Your expression says it all."

Jethro handed Tony the black cuffs to feel.

"Oooo," he said. "Those are even softer than the brown ones." He looked up at Jethro. They were two simple black cuffs, wide enough to be comfortable, with two sets of snaps on each cuff to ensure they stayed snapped and a sturdy steel chain of about 18 inches attaching them to one another.

"Try them on and see if they fit," the man suggested.

Jethro smirked and took them from Tony's hands and unsnapped one before wrapping it around Tony's wrist to snap them in place. He looked up into Tony's eyes and was surprised to see them dilating. He raised an eyebrow at him, knowing all the while that they were being watched critically. He pulled on the cuff once it was snapped around Tony's arm to see how sturdy it was. It held with surprising strength. "Do you like them?" he asked quietly, surprised to find his voice so gruff.

"They fit well," Tony said, his own voice low.

"They were made to handle the strength of a man. There's similar but different models for women, but these are specifically for a man," the shopkeeper said. "If you feel they're too loose or tight we take orders for specially made cuffs fit to measure."

Tony looked up at him with a polite smile. "I think these will work just fine," he said, then looked back at Jethro through hooded eyes.

"This larger link in the middle is meant for attachments if you're interested. You can link them to a bedframe or a set of ankle cuffs with a chain. Of course, you could also just feed them through a headboard if you have the type with rungs. If not, we offer discreet attachments you can install to hook them to."

"They'll go well through the slats in the headboard," Tony told him with a nod. "It doesn't take much to keep me controlled," he added as his eyes made contact with Jethro's, who raised an eyebrow at him. He realized that Tony was enjoying this much more than an average shopping trip.

"I think we'll take these," he said.

"Excellent choice. Now, are there other needs from this room?"

"I don't think so," Tony said, raising an eyebrow in question at Jethro. "Anything you're drawn to?"

"Just you," Jethro said with another smirk.

Tony chuckled and held up his wrist for Jethro to unsnap the cuff. Jethro did so with a smirk, but his hands moved as if handling something sacred. He handed the cuffs to the shopkeeper.

"I will have these wrapped for you and meet you at the front counter."

"Oh!" Tony exclaimed, snapping his fingers as he remembered something. "I wanted to get a collar for a friend of mine, but she wears them more as a fashion accessory. Something for day to day wear."

The man nodded. "I have a couple back here that could go either way, but there is a selection out front as well."

He led them over to another case and pointed out a few. Tony didn't like any of those options and decided to go look out front. The man nodded and instructed Tony and Jethro to go ahead on out to the main shop and have a look around for a few minutes.

They made their way out front and Tony was soon engrossed in looking through the wares. Jethro had made his way over to the belts and found one that he liked that was a simple black belt with small ribbing to it every few inches. He was joined by Tony who picked out a belt for him and one for McGee.

"Did you find Abby's collar?" Jethro asked him.

"Yeah, I think so, but it's in a glass case with some others. I'll have to have Geraldo get it for me. It's black with small silver rivets and roses etched into it."

Jethro nodded, an expression of approval on his face. His mind was on Tony's enjoyment of having Geraldo watch him get strapped into the cuff. He had been thinking about something outside of his comfort zone, and he decided to do it. They were far enough away from home to get away with it, and he didn't know when they'd have the chance again. He had to get in touch with someone to see if it was even possible, but if Tony enjoyed it, it would be worth it.

He moved with Tony to the counter with his belt draped casually over his shoulder. He saw Tony eyeing the shoes, but he looked quickly away when Geraldo came back. There was a bit more conversation as Tony checked over the collar he'd chosen for Abby, and soon they were leaving the shop with their goods.

Once back to the hotel Tony sighed with contentment. They dropped their bag on the table and Jethro turned to see Tony stretching.

"I think I want to jump in the shower," he said with a yawn. "You want to join me in a few minutes?" He eyed Jethro seductively.

"I can't turn that down," Jethro said, moving towards Tony to put his hands on his hips and kiss him deeply.

"Okay. Just give me a few minutes. Need to use the head first."

"Sounds good," he said, letting Tony go.

As soon as Tony was in the bathroom, Jethro grabbed his cell phone. He opened up the Skype program Tony had taught him to use and went through his address book. He found the name he was looking for and then struggled to type in a message explaining what he was looking for. He sat his phone down and started to undress to join Tony in the shower. Before he could get his pants off there was a reply. He grabbed the phone and read it.

 _Really, Jethro? I never knew that was your thing. I'll see what I can find for you._

Jethro smirked. If anyone could find it, it was her. He replied back a thank you, and finished stripping. He envisioned a naked, glistening Tony waiting for him in the shower and licked his lips as he headed for the bathroom door. He'd wanted to try the cuffs tonight, but they'd have to wait.


	18. Chapter 18

_So sorry for the long hiatus loves. Been dealing with some stuff, then the holidays… This is a really long chapter (for better or worse), but a lot of ground is covered. The beginning is NSFW, so, ya know, enjoy somewhere other than work! ;) I hope to get back on track soon. Thanks for your patience!_

 **Chapter 18**

Tony shuddered as Jethro's arms came around him in the shower and his dry lips met Tony's neck. This was how things started. The first time Jethro actually took him was in the shower back in March. It was now August and so much had changed, but that touch still made him come alive inside like no other touch ever had. His heart pounded harder in his chest and his world grew more vivid the moment that Jethro's hands found his body.

"God, I love you," Tony murmured.

"Love you, too," Jethro said back, his voice husky and low. "And I love how you look when the water is streaming down your sexy body. Makes me want to lick every drop off of you."

Tony groaned and leaned against the wall in front of him so that his ass pressed into Jethro's crotch. He felt him grow harder at the new connection and swayed his hips to rub against him.

"That's right," Jethro said quietly. "You know what you want."

"You. Every minute of every day."

Jethro smirked as he bit down gently on Tony's shoulder.

"Tease," Tony whispered.

Jethro continued nibbling and suckling his way up Tony's neck. Tony groaned and then turned around so that he was facing Jethro. He leaned forward and took his mouth in a kiss and found himself pinned to the wall with Jethro's body as he devoured his mouth, a hand on each side of him. He let himself melt into the kiss knowing that he was being possessed and owned tonight, and he admitted that he didn't care one damn bit about what anyone else would've thought about it. He was Jethro's, and he wanted everyone to know.

Jethro wrapped his hand around Tony's cock and gave it a few long twisted strokes. Tony moaned softly into the kiss as he did so. Jethro decided he was going to take this round quick and then build it back up slowly once they got out of the shower and he had Tony cuffed to the bed. His mouth moved to Tony's neck where he sucked just hard enough not to give him a hickey and then bit down hard on Tony's shoulder.

"Fuck yes!" Tony gasped. "Oh yes…"

"Turn around," Jethro commanded as he unclenched his teeth. He reached for the bottle of lube he'd brought with him from the bedroom. He squirted some on his fingers and then sat it back on the holder next to the shampoo. He wasted no time going straight for his prize and opening it up. He loved the little gurgling sounds Tony made as he moaned with the water from the showerhead flowing over his face. It made him smirk as he slipped another finger into Tony and stretched them apart.

It didn't take but a minute to stretch him nice and loose. Jethro reached for the lube again, slicking his cock and without any fanfare plunged into Tony's prone body.

"Holy shit!" Tony cried out. "Yes! Yes, Jethro! Yes!"

The pace was hard and fast from the beginning, taking Tony with no care as to how he felt as long as he wasn't in pain. He was going to make him beg for his release. He loved how Tony pushed back against an already punishing rhythm causing their wet bodies to smack against one another. It was intense and when he came without warning into Tony's ass he reached over and turned off the water.

"Let it drip out of you," Jethro said, pinning Tony against the wall again. "You don't get to come yet." Tony groaned. "Get out and rub down with a towel."

"Yes, sir," Tony said with a shudder. He got out and did as he was told.

Jethro led him to the bedroom where he unpacked the cuffs. "Face down on the bed, hands above your head."

Tony following his orders was a complete turn on for him. He came over and fed the cuffs through the headboard so that Tony's left hand couldn't reach his right and vice versa. He cuffed them and stood back to watch his handiwork. "I like that." He took his phone out and started taking pictures of Tony on the bed, letting the flash announce what he was doing.

"I didn't realize that when I taught you how to take pictures with your phone you'd be taking pictures of me," Tony said with a soft chuckle.

"I should take video of that ass dripping my cum," Jethro said in reply, then moved to the bed to spread Tony's cheeks and hit the record button. "So nasty."

"You love every bit of it," Tony said.

"I do," he stopped the video after only a few seconds and sat the phone back on the nightstand next to the bottle of lube that he'd brought back from the bathroom with him. He turned the lamp off, once again letting only the lamp from across the room light the space. He sat next to Tony, drawing his nails across his skin lightly enough to raise goosebumps, but hard enough to leave light pink marks in their trail.

"I know you're dying to come, but you're going to have to wait until I get what I need again."

Tony groaned.

"Don't pretend like the idea of being denied your orgasm doesn't turn you on even more," Jethro said with a smirk, then spanked Tony hard once on each cheek. The crack that filled the air was satisfying for both of them and Tony gasped in both pleasure and pain.

"You'll be lucky if I let you come at all," Jethro said, a dark feeling coming over him. "I should leave you tied up like this all night, begging me to let you have your release."

"Please, no!" Tony moaned. "Don't. I really, really need to come."

"I know you do, but you can't yet. Not until I say so."

"I know," Tony said. He took a deep, steadying breath. "What do I have to do?" he asked.

"Just lay there until I'm ready to cum again."

Tony tried to lay still but he could feel the cum running down his ballsack from his ass and wiggled his butt to try to rush its movement so the tickling would stop. There was another loud crack and Tony felt the sensation of the smack to his right ass cheek on a delay. Jethro got up and went to the luggage. He opened it up to find their underwear and the ties. He grabbed one of Tony's widest and brought it over to the bed. Without warning he wrapped it around Tony's eyes, tying it in a knot at the back of his head. Tony groaned.

"You're evil."

"You love it."

"I do."

Jethro parted Tony's ass again and ran his finger around the rim of his stretched anus. It was soft and wet and Jethro wished he was ready to dive back in again. He felt a slight twitch in his cock, but it wasn't ready for another round yet.

He straddled Tony and began rubbing his back in a sensual way to keep him hard and aching for him. He dipped down and bit and licked as he went. It was amazing to touch Tony freely without the fear that anyone would interrupt them. Amira wouldn't be calling for another five hours. He had all the time he needed to play with Tony uninhibited.

His fingers ran up and through Tony's hair and then he grabbed hard, yanking Tony's head back, destroying the calm feeling the massage was giving him. Tony gasped, and Jethro smirked. "What do you want, Tony?" he asked.

"I want you to fill me with more cum!" Tony gasped out. "Please!"

That wasn't the answer Jethro was expecting, and it caused his dick to jump again a little more forcefully this time.

"You're filthy and I love it," Jethro said gruffly as he bent down near Tony's ear before biting the backside of his shoulder.

"Shit!" Tony gasped. He started letting out a string of words in Italian that sounded distinctly like begging and Jethro groaned low in his chest. He picked up the words "per favore" over and over again and smirked to himself.

"That's right," Jethro said, feeling borderline malicious. "Beg. Beg me to let you come."

"I need you to fuck me, Jethro," Tony whined. "Please?"

Jethro loved the sound of those words coming from those lips. He stroked himself a few times and found that he was getting semi-hard. "Turn that head to the right," he demanded and then stretched so that his dick was right by Tony's mouth. "Open up." Tony's mouth opened and Jethro guided his dick inside. Tony couldn't get a great angle here, but Jethro started thrusting in and out anyway. He got more cheek than throat, but it still felt good enough to make him harder. "Atta boy. Let me fuck your face." Tony sat still and Jethro's hands grabbed Tony's hair and started a nice rhythmic plunging into his mouth. Tony had a hard time breathing at that angle and soon was coughing. Jethro dropped his head after he pulled safely out and Tony took some deep breaths.

"You want to be fucked again, huh?" Jethro asked.

"Yes, sir. Please," Tony asked breathlessly.

"What if I just wanted to jack off all over your back?" he said, stroking himself.

"I'm yours to do with as you please," Tony said, his voice dripping with an honest craving to please his lover.

"Good answer," Jethro said. He climbed back onto Tony's ass and unceremoniously plunged back into him.

"Fuck yes!" Tony cried out.

Jethro got a nice bouncing ride going as he fucked down into Tony, then switched positions to accommodate his knees. Tony started trying to bounce back and Jethro shook his head.

"Hold still," he said, then he laid across Tony's back, pinning him to the bed as his hips thrusted in and out of Tony, pounding into his ass over and over again. "My cum makes for nice lube. You feel that?"

"Hell yeah," Tony moaned. "Please, harder…" His voice trailed off into another moan.

Jethro kept at it until he needed to switch positions. He got up on his knees and maneuvered Tony to do the same, then slid back in. "So good," he murmured as he thrust in and out a couple of times slowly, then increased his pace again.

"Please, Jethro! Please! I need to come so bad! You're- you're hitting- oh fuck! Pleeeeeeeeaaasssseeee!" he whined.

"Not until I do and I tell you you can."

"Please come! Please come!" Tony chanted.

"Is that what you want? Huh? Me to fill that ass again?" Jethro grunted out between thrusts.

"Yes… Yes… Yes…" Tony gasped with each thrust.

Jethro shifted his position just a little to get a better grip and started slamming into Tony's ass deeper and harder than before. He was losing his rhythm and Tony knew that he'd be full again soon with the warm liquid.

There was a loud groan from behind Tony and Jethro's hips stuttered to a stop, thrust a few more times, then stopped again before pulling out slowly. He watched as his cum sluiced out of Tony and smirked. The possessive feeling inside him grew even more as he watched as if he'd just marked Tony as his. He sat back on his feet for a few minutes as he caught his breath and got his bearings.

"We're going to take a little home movie," Jethro said with a lightbulb of an idea. "I'm going to unbind you, though I think you'll keep that tie on, and I'm going to watch you jerk off."

Tony groaned and waited for Jethro to unsnap the cuffs. "There you go. Turn over. Lube is next to you on your left if you want it."

"I've got so much precum right now that I might not need it," Tony said with a chuckle. It was then that he heard the chime that meant Jethro had started recording with his phone. He tried to block that out and started a slow stroke using the precum. After a couple of strokes there was even more. He liked the friction it gave him. His cock was not quiet slick, not quite dry, and very hot.

"Can I come?" he asked.

"Not until I say. Stroke harder and faster," Jethro commanded.

"Yes, sir," Tony said as he began stroking as directed. He thought he was going to explode- if not his dick then his head. His need was pounding through him.

Jethro watched him intently, not even checking to see if Tony remained in the viewfinder on the camera. He watched Tony turning red in his restraint not to let his orgasm go and he decided to have pity on him.

"You're mine," he said.

"All yours, Jethro. Only yours."

"Good. You can come."

"Oh, thank god!" Tony belted as he laid back and stroked himself a few more times until he jolted up off of the bed with his orgasm, one hand on his dick and the other propping him up as he groaned and his face scrunched up. He erupted all over the comforter that was crumpled and bunched up underneath him.

"There you go," Jethro said huskily as he watched. "Feel better?" Tony collapsed on the bed gasping. He held up a thumbs up and Jethro chuckled. He stopped the video and then grabbed some tissues to try to wipe up the cum all over the comforter. He took them to the bathroom to throw away and grabbed a wet washcloth for Tony. "Here you go. Clean up a bit and we'll lay down for a while."

Tony groaned and took the washcloth. He cleaned himself up and handed back to Jethro who took it back to the bathroom. Once he was back he laid down next to Tony, pulling him close to him. He kissed him in the crook of his neck and breathed him in.

"I just can't get close enough to you," he whispered.

"Ditto," Tony said, snuggling against Jethro.

They nuzzled each other until they dozed off.

********WDYG?********

Elly looked up from across the room to see if Ned had gotten his email. He'd been slacking for a few minutes and looking at houses online. Their search the night before was enlightening. They both found out just what type of houses they _didn't_ want to live in, but they hadn't gotten much closer to narrowing down the style that they wanted. It was frustrating in some ways, and interesting in others. They were both pointing out little things that they liked, but they couldn't really define a style. Ned must've opened the email because his expression was casually considerate. He raised an eyebrow a bit as he half-nodded/half-shook his head in a bobble. Elly could hear him click through the various photos of the house and counted through them. He followed along silently, watching Ned's expressions with every click to see if he could capture his true reaction of each room. When they both clicked to the last photo he waited. Ned bent over and started an email.

He stared at his computer and waited for the email to come through. With a blink and a ding, he smiled and opened his inbox to click on the reply.

 _I like the siding on the outside. It's a nice color. Shutters would have to be painted a different color though. And I love the deck in the back. It would be perfect to put an above ground pool against. Small yard otherwise, which has its pros and cons. Not much to mow and rake, but also not much to hang out in. No room for a firepit_ and _a pool. We'd kinda have to choose between them. I love the kitchen, but hate the bedrooms. Too small. May be a good room for our kids, but not for us. Love the tile and hardwood floors. Easy to clean! :D_

Elly smiled. The thought of planning for kids had his stomach fluttering. He read it through one more time and replied.

 _I agree with everything but the shutters. I kinda like them. I'm not opposed to painting them, but I do like the contrast. It was just different than everything we'd looked at last night and I wanted to get a sense of your likes and dislikes._

He watched from across the room as Ned opened the email. He looked back at him and gave him a thumbs up. Elly smiled and went back to doing actual work. They'd returned to working on the database project. He was coding while Ned and Greg were writing up profiles on the cold cases. Across the bullpen Tim, Ziva, and Sommers were all doing their parts.

Elly hadn't told the team about his conversation with Sommers yet. He wanted to wait to see what the outcome was the next morning. He'd noticed the other man's purpling jaw hadn't moved much since he came back from the gym. The other side of the bullpen was silent except for the clacking of keys and the occasional question from one of them to try to help them decipher some handwriting in an old case file.

Twenty minutes later there was a ding from his email client and he saw that Ned had sent him a link. He opened it and saw another house. As soon as he saw it his heart jumped. It looked perfect. Pale yellow with green shutters, a nice porch with a big front window, and a privacy fence around the back yard. There were little flowers planted in a strip of garden along the driveway and front walk, and a small garden of ferns and shrubs against the porch.

He clicked the next picture button and found a gorgeous living room with fireplace and hardwood floors, cream walls and a ton of sunlight from that window. It opened up to a large kitchen with a large space off to the left that was surrounded by windows for a dining table. The appliances were all stainless and looked brand new. There was a tile mosaic backdrop around a granite counter and updated white cabinets. The island was part stove and part countertop with a rack hanging above it that pans could hang from.

A door between the kitchen and living room on one side ended up leading to a small bathroom with just a shower, sink and toilet. It was a little outdated, but not horribly so. A dark wooden banister led up to the second floor where there was a master bedroom that Elly wanted to move into immediately with an entire wall dedicated to closet space behind white accordion style doors. An in-suite bathroom boasted an oversized tub/shower and double vanity sink, each with its own cabinet and mirror. They'd have to redo the tile because it was an ugly pinkish orange, but that was easy enough to fix.

The next pictures showed two other smaller bedrooms, all hardwood floors like the master, and a smaller basic bathroom with white tile. Further photos showed a finished laundry room in the basement and another partially finished room that could be used for a rec room or such if given the right TLC. The backyard photo just sank it for him though. There was an inground pool off the patio and enough yard beyond it that they could put a firepit if they wanted. He was in love.

"That's freakin' perfect!" he said to Ned without bothering with an email replied. "I mean, just freaking perfect!"

"Yeah, except for the price tag," Ned said with a chuckle. "I don't think we are ready to take on something that high."

Elly looked at the price. $369,500. He sighed.

"Damn. We'd need at least $25,000 down to get payments as low as we'd need them."

"Yeah, and we're only at half of that if we use every bit of our savings."

"Well, at least we've got a template now. But damn that's perfect! It hurts to look at! I mean, it wouldn't take a lot of work at all, which is good because I don't think either of are very handy."

"Hey! I can use a saw! And a drill and hammer, too! I helped build stage sets in college."

"You've been holding out on me!" Elly said with a smile.

"Are you two house hunting?" Greg asked with a hint of disbelief.

"They both smiled at each other before turning to him. Ned nodded and Elly said, "Yeah."

"Damn," he said, sitting back as he spun his pen in his hand. "Makes me feel like that's what I should be doing with Little Girl on the way."

"You have to do what's right for you," Ned said with a one shoulder shrug. "Your condo is fine for you right now."

"We're combining households anyway, so we figured we'd take the leap," Elly said, also shrugging.

"Guess that makes sense," Greg said. "Send me the house you're talking about though. I wanna see it!"

They both smiled and Elly sent him the link. They watched his expression as he flitted through the pictures.

"That's a gorgeous house," Greg said. "I wish you _would_ get it so that we could come over and use that pool! I could use a dip in it right now."

"Alas, it's pretty expensive." Ned sighed.

"Yeah, but anything you find without a horrendous commute is going to be," Greg said. "That's why we ended up with the condo. We couldn't afford a house when we moved out here. With both of our incomes now we probably could, but we're going to have to adjust to Little Girl first and see what she needs before making the commitment to a huge house payment every month."

"You have the down payment saved up?" Elly asked.

"A good portion of it. I have a feeling that's all going to find a use before it gets put down on a house though. Having a baby is expensive!"

Both men chuckled softly.

"Seriously! Have you checked out how much a box of diapers cost?! It's ridiculous!"

They laughed a little harder.

"Will totally be worth it though," Elly said with a smile for him.

"Oh, hell yeah it will be," Greg said, smiling brightly with a dreamy look in his eyes.

Elly looked at Ned who was looking back at him searchingly. There was a hopeful look in the expression, and Elly smiled back and nodded. Their eyes were locked and they both knew that it wouldn't be too long before they were looking into having kids themselves. Give them a few years and they'd start the process.

Greg's voice interrupted their moment. "Hey now! I know that look! Don't even think about it! You haven't even made it to the wedding yet. Give it a little time before the whole kids thing."

Both men laughed. "You're giving me baby fever!" Ned said through his chuckles.

"Seriously though," Elly said. "We know it will happen eventually, but we're not ready for it yet. That doesn't mean we're not totally living vicariously through you right now though."

Greg smiled. "You're welcome to! It's pretty awesome. Glad to share it."

They got quiet for a few minutes and then started back to work. Ned couldn't concentrate though. He thought about the house and kids, and that made him think of Amira and the night before. He turned to Greg, wondering if he shouldn't ask him about it. He stopped himself, then turned back to him again.

"Hey Greg?"

"Yeah?" he answered, looking over, then back at his screen.

"We had an issue with Amira last night and I'm worried about her."

Elly was suddenly fully attentive to the conversation. "Yeah. Greg, it was so sad."

"What happened?"

Ned took on telling him what had happened the night before. By the end of the short summarization Greg looked as pained as he and Elly had felt the night before and Ned knew that he was right to ask.

"Well, Sierra was right to leave her alone for a while. But what did you do after that? What did she do?"

Ned slowly shrugged one shoulder. "We hung out downstairs and she didn't come down all night. We checked on her before we went to bed, but she was out. Sleeping soundly."

"How was she this morning?"

"Cranky, but clingy," Elly answered. "She wanted to be held at all times. We asked her if she wanted to call her dads and she shook her head no and wouldn't look us in the eyes."

"But she hugged me tighter than Elly does when he asked her," Ned said, shaking his head daunted. "Clung to me for dear life."

"And she wouldn't eat this morning. We tried, Sierra tried, and she wouldn't touch her Cheerios. We offered yogurt, and a bagel, and even leftover chicken from last night. No takers."

"But she did have a Gatorade. Or at least she was carrying it around like a security blanket," Ned added, grimacing at Elly before looking back at Greg.

Greg thought for a minute and looked back and forth between the two men. "I would bet money that she's going to talk to Tony and Gibbs when they call tonight and cry and get mad but also be really sad. She's probably never had to deal with guilt and shame like this, and she's probably feeling that right now and doesn't know how to comprehend it. She'll be okay. She knows she messed up last night and she just needs reassurance that it's going to be okay and that everyone forgives her and still loves her."

"Oh," Ned said, sitting up. "I never would've thought about that. She seemed angry more than anything. Rebellious even."

"She was probably being stubborn, but what did you guys say to her when she didn't want to talk to Tony and Gibbs?" Greg asked.

Ned looked at Elly who answered. "I told her that they missed her and that they loved her and wanted to talk to her."

"Which probably reinforced the shame and guilt because she _knows_ that they love her and miss her, but she doesn't _know it, know it._ She's never had to deal with this. It all new territory for her. She's never been without Leyla, and she's never had to face this fear. It's going to be ugly. Her doubts are natural. It's going to be a storm that needs to be ridden out carefully though. Don't placate, but don't get angry. Patience, love, tenderness but a firm response is going to get everyone through this."

Elly smiled at him. "You're going to be a great dad, Greg."

"Totally," Ned agreed with a nod.

"I can't wait to find out!" Greg said, his smile reaching his eyes.

********WDYG?********

Ellie felt like she'd been transported to another world. She was sitting on the ground in the garden, a basket next to her with carrots, green peppers and tomatoes, and next to the beds she'd been working was a pile of weeds. The sun was hot on her shoulders and the smell of the soil was calming. She couldn't believe that just 48 hours earlier she'd been a hostage.

She was aware that she'd been left alone. The sounds of her mother shuffling around and snapping the ears of corn off the stalks on the far edge of the garden had stopped. She'd been told about how these stalks were a new hybrid they were trying in the soil to see how they liked it and would only be for the family this year, but they'd worked out really well so far and they were thinking about doing a plot of them next year for the farmers' market.

Now there was no snapping, shuffling, or explanations. The neighborhood gossip had also trickled down to nothing. She was alone to absorb the peace.

Her thoughts drifted away from the abduction and the videos she'd been forced to watch. They settled on the best memories with Jake. Times they were happy from before he became the monster. She thought of their favorite dates in college, fierce debates on policies that sometimes they were even on the same sides of, but debated anyway. She remembered Sunday mornings in bed and Saturday nights out with friends. She thought fondly on Jake's excited expression when they were going to work at the NSA together for the first time. He wasn't always the retched disaster he'd become.

She told herself that she'd fallen in love with a good man that went bad. He wasn't always like this. He wasn't always perverse and demented and violent beyond belief. He wasn't always broken, shattered, sadistic. He'd been endearingly sweet and childlike sometimes when it was just the two of them. And even his words during the confession ran through her head and made her smile just the littlest bit, that she was the source of good in his world and he'd wanted to keep her safe from this. Until he didn't.

She took a deep breath and gritted her teeth. If she hadn't have come home when she had and overheard the conversation between Jake and his handler they could still be searching for who had killed Mark.

She blinked in surprise as tears started to fall that she didn't feel coming. Mark was gone. She'd never see him again. Never work with his brilliant mind. Never laugh at his corny jokes. Never roll her eyes at another tacky Hawaiian shirt or announcement of his vacation photos being ready to view. He'd make her a Christmas card every year with one of the photos, and she wouldn't find one on her desk this year. He'd been her friend, her mentor, and now he was gone.

She pulled her knees from their crossed pose to bend towards her chest, then laid her head on it as her arms came around them, folding her frame. She felt small and fragile suddenly. She heard the gate squeak next to her and looked up to find her dad.

"Ellie honey," he said softly, then came to sit next to her on the ground. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side. She turned to bury her head in his shoulder as her arms wrapped around him and just cried.

"I gotcha," he whispered, occasionally patting her back or smoothing her hair. Otherwise, he stayed silent.

She cried for so long that she lost track of time as her mind swirled with all of the darkness of the past week. She cried for Mark, for her, even for Jake and the kids he twisted to his demented ways. She cried for the brokenness she felt for not being able to see her own husband was a serial killer. She cried from the shame of being an NSA analyst and missing all the signs that her husband was the perfect suspect. She cried for the hole that Mark left in her life, and she cried for the fear that had kept her awake for the past few nights. She cried because she never wanted to go back to the NSA where everyone would know her story, everyone would suspect her, judge her, and talk about her, or worse, try to be sympathetic. And how dare they try to be sympathetic when they had no idea what she was going through? She cried because she was safe now, but cried harder because she hadn't been and no one was able to protect her from that.

She only started to calm down when she thought of the people who had been trying so hard to protect her over the past week. She thought of Ned, and she thought of Elly and Parke. She thought of Ziva and Abby and McGee. She thought of the kind ME and his assistant, and even their kind director. She thought of her mom and brothers and her dad as he held her. That sense of safety settled in her gut and she took a few deep breaths. The tears stopped, and she felt weak and exhausted as she let her dad go and fell back into a cross-legged position on the soft soil.

Her dad reached a hand towards her with a handkerchief in it and she took it with a small sideways grin, then blew her nose. She remembered Parke handing her his a couple of nights before on the wall of the parking garage and turned towards her dad.

"Dad, I don't want to go back to the NSA."

His eyes widened a little and he blinked, but nodded. "Okay. What do you want to do?"

She took a deep breath. "I want to join NCIS."

"And do analysis there?" he asked.

"No," she said with a slight shake of her head. "I want to be an agent."

"That's… that's a big change. I know you'd wanted to do that in the past, but I didn't think you did anymore."

"Despite the nightmares this situation has brought up, the silver lining has been that I'd felt more at use working on this case with the agents than I ever have at the NSA. And I trust them, Dad. The teams I worked with are amazing people. And they have a position that's going to be opening up soon, and I want it."

"Then you go get it, sweetheart."

She smiled at her dad and knelt up to put her arms around him again. He hugged her tightly.

"You are an amazing woman, if I do say so myself. You don't deserve all of this. You go do what you have to do, Elenore. You know we'll support whatever you decide."

"Thanks, Dad. I love you."

"Love you, too honey."

********WDYG?********

Sommers sat at his desk and grit his teeth through the pain he was feeling in his jaw until that hurt, and then he had to take a few deep breaths to relax. He was riding an emotional rollercoaster that fluctuated between fury and depression. Sometimes that fury was at his coworkers, especially Critten, and sometimes it was at himself. He felt like he was on a wire, and all it would take was one good breeze to blow him off, and the only question left was which way he was going to fall.

When he was brutally honest with himself, he knew he had become a cocky, arrogant jerk. He'd been that way so long now though that it was pretty much his entire adult personality. Sure, he'd always been a little overconfident, and he was sure someone in this room would tell him something about how it had to do with his upbringing, but he sure wasn't going to ask their opinions about it. If he was overcompensating for something, so be it, but he was a grown ass man now that didn't need his father's approval. Yet, here he was, sitting behind a desk in the tacky orange cage of the NCIS bullpen. God, he hated these walls.

He thought of some of the things that Critten had said to him and how he pretty much had transformed before his very eyes in the gym, and, he begrudgingly admitted, in the morgue. He'd always kind of seen Critten as somewhat of a fairy, or at least a dorky tech guy. The pain that currently reverberated in his jaw told him to check himself at the very thought of it now. The words that echoed through his head from their "conversation" in the morgue reverberated pretty much everywhere else. He'd been dead wrong. Critten may not have been the kind of leader he expected, but he definitely was one. One he wouldn't cross again.

He stared blankly at the text in front of him as he thought about what other unexpected surprises he'd experienced from his coworkers on this case that he wouldn't have even thought of. Ziva calling him a dick in the car the other day, not to mention learning about her ties to Mossad, and holy-shit-she-really-killed-her-own-brother. He intentionally lowered his eyes so his wouldn't accidentally meet hers over the edge of his monitor.

He thought of McGee telling him to get downstairs now or he was going to Vance to have him immediately discharged. Another tech geek he'd underestimated.

He thought for a few minutes about that specifically. He'd grown such a disdain for techies, looking down on him, when what he'd always wanted to do was work in a lab. Was that really his belief, or was that his dad's being imprinted on him? He wrapped an arm around his stomach. He felt sick, and he hoped anyone who saw would mistake his movement for that of a man with sore ribs, because those really did hurt like fuck, too.

His head spun. He'd become a combination of his dad and brother, but there was nothing of him left. He was the condescending player his brother had taught him to be, and he was the dumbass who put brawn over brains like his dad. That wasn't him. He felt hot from head to toe and thought he was going to pass out again or throw up. Maybe both. At the same time.

The last thing he heard was Ziva calling for McGee.

********WDYG?********

Ziva looked up to see that Sommers looked very flushed, his eyes darting around wildly. She noticed his arm was around his stomach and when she looked back up his eyes were rolling into the back of his head. She jumped up and called out for McGee who looked over just in time to jump up and catch Sommers before his chair could tilt backwards and cause him to hit his head on the bookshelf behind him.

"Sommers?" Tim asked.

"Greg!" Ziva said over the divider. "We need your hand!"

" _A_ hand, Ziva," Tim correctly calmly as he lightly smacked the side of Sommers' face to try to wake him up.

All three men from the other side of the bullpen came over, but everyone made way for Greg.

"What happened?" Greg asked.

"He looked very red, and then his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and then he was… like this," Ziva said.

"Come on, Kyle," Elly said with a grimace. "I didn't think I'd kicked the back of his head that hard, but maybe I did."

Greg nodded and pulled down open his eyes lids. "Oooo… yeah. There's definitely a concussion there. Check that out," he said, opening the eye lids again for Elly to see. One pupil was much larger than the other.

"They weren't like that earlier," Elly said. "Ducky checked."

They could hear Ziva behind them on the phone as she talked to Ducky. Elly held Sommers in place while Greg turned to take the phone from where Ziva was holding it out to him. They all waited the discussion out and then Greg handed Ziva back the phone and she hung it up.

"He's on his way up and he's calling an ambulance."

Before he could even finish his sentence, Jimmy appeared with a vial of smelling salts. "This worked earlier," he said, wiggling in to the space in front of Sommers and thrusted the vial under his nose. He stirred, groaned, and then was out again.

"Damn it," Elly groaned. "How'd I know this was going to come back to bite us?"

"Chill man. It'll be okay," Greg coaxed, but he was using his phone to shine a bright light into Sommers' eyes. "His left pupil reacts to the light, but the right doesn't. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Here, hand me the salts again." He was shoving them back under Sommers' nose and getting nothing but a soft groan when Ducky arrived.

"The ambulance is on the way," he announced. "Security has been alerted and they should be here momentarily." Greg showed him the pupil reactions and Ducky's grim expression matched Elly's. "Yes, well it can take time for a concussion to show signs like this. Did you say he hit his head?" he asked Elly.

"He may have at one point, but the truth is that I kicked him during sparring in the back of the head," Elly said, feeling the blood drain from his face and his own stomach going queasy.

Ducky merely nodded and gingerly ran his fingers over the back of Sommers' head. His serious expression grew graver as his fingers ran over a bump that felt more like a pouch full of fluid. "I feel the point of contact. Will need a CAT scan and x-rays to be sure."

"I'll go tell the Director why there's about to be a gurney in his bullpen," Elly said, then moved to head up the stairs.

"You want me to go with you?" Tim called.

"No. Stay with your… teammate," Elly said, his eyes on Sommers for a long moment before turning back to Tim.

He headed up the stairs and then to Vance's door. Pam motioned for him to go on in, and he nodded his thanks before opening the door and closing it behind him.

"Agent Critten," Vance greeted. "What can I do for you?"

"I gave Sommers a concussion. And I broke his nose. Probably bruised some ribs."

"You're looking a little pale. You should sit down," Vance said getting up to motion that Elly sit in front of his desk. Elly did as directed, took a deep breath and looked back up at Vance. "Now explain."

"We had sparring scheduled in the gym this morning, and it was a veiled excuse to teach Sommers about assumptions. The team delegated me to be the one to prove the point, and we sparred. He was grossly unprepared for me, and I outmatched him dramatically. I pulled a lot of my anger, but apparently not enough. I'd broken his nose and took him to see Ducky, who did glance at his eyes with a penlight, but he didn't see any signs of concussion. He set his nose, Kyle and I had words, found out more about him and what his problem is, and things appeared to be good. But now there's an ambulance coming to take him to the hospital because he's unconscious at his desk and definitely has a concussion."

"So, he hit his head during the match, and now you feel responsible," Vance said gravely.

"No, sir. I kicked him in the back of the head during the match. I know I'm responsible."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"Well, what do you want to do about it?"

"I want to go to the hospital with him. I've never put anyone in the hospital that didn't deserve to be there, sir."

"I would definitely say that you should go. You need to be prepared of the possible consequences of this. If the injury is severe enough…"

"I know, sir."

"Is there anyone who witnessed the fight that could attest to the kick?"

"Ohhhh yeah," Elly said, eyes wide with a nod. "Half of NCIS was down there, and I know there's video."

"You should know that I knew that there were plans for today's fight, and I didn't stop it. As a boxer, I've learned that there are some lessons learned in the ring that can't be learned anywhere else for some people. There are also things in place to protect you. Athletics lead to concussions. That's just the way it is. You all sign disclosures when you sign on that you'll be doing this kind of fighting and that you could be put in danger. The key is whether or not you used undue force. Who has the video?"

"I know Abby does," Elly said, swallowing.

Vance went around the back of his desk again and picked up the phone. "Pam, please ask Ms. Sciuto to come to my office and bring the footage of this morning's sparring practice. Thank you."

He sat back down behind the desk. "Get to the hospital. I'll review the footage and tell you if I think undue force was used."

"Thank you, sir," Elly said, getting to his feet. His stomach lurched for a minute, but he took a deep breath and shook his head and made his way towards the door.

Vance sat back in his chair and shook his head. He was never letting the Gibbses take vacation again.

********WDYG?********

Sommers was standing in the corner of the kitchen of the old house they lived in before his mom left them. He was confused. The entire family was there staring at a child version of him as he grinned and blew out the candles on the birthday cake in front of him. It was round with a big dinosaur drawn on it in green icing. Five candles. He was so small, and they were all together.

He wanted to be mad at his mom, sitting there smiling like she was happy when he now knew that she was already cheating on his dad and that she'd give up complete custody of them a year later, never looking back. But that day had been such a great day. He still remembered it. There were little dinosaur eggs in the cake when it was cut and he thought it was the coolest thing ever. He'd even gotten a cool little brush set and his dad took him out looking for fossils. He'd loved dinosaurs as a kid. He'd loved his family.

The scene started changing around him and he looked around frantically. "No!" he said, panicking. "No! No-no-no-no-noooo! Come back! Please? Please!" he shouted, and then the room went dark. A sense of sickening dread came over him as he adjusted to the dim light in the room from the moon outside his window and he remembered the night like it was yesterday.

A young version of him was lying in bed, the blanket pulled up over his head and he could tell he was crying. Yeah, this was definitely the night. His mom had always left the nightlight on for him, but she was gone now and his dad had decided he was old enough since he was six years old to go to sleep without it. Time to grow up, he had said.

He'd left him a little flashlight next to his bed and told him that if he was afraid of something in the shadows to get up out of bed and go shine the flashlight on them and make sure nothing was there. He'd meant it as a kind gesture, and intended for it to inspire courage, and looking back now Kyle knew it. But that night, he was terrified, because the moon was full outside of his window and the trees were casting all sorts of shadows across his room. It hadn't helped that the creaky old closet door had come open a little, which would be a problem until they fixed the doorknob years later.

He'd stayed up all night shivering and crying in his bed because he was so afraid. Hours upon hours of fear.

Kyle went over to the bed and tried to sit down and comfort his younger self, but he wasn't really there, and he knew it. This wasn't right. He wanted to be able to make him feel better since no one else was coming to help him. When he couldn't fix it, he became agitated. "Jeez! Just stop fucking crying! Nothing is in the damn closet! Nothing is hiding in the fucking shadows! Get over it! Turn the damn flashlight on if you're so fucking afraid!" When his child-self didn't stop his weeping, he growled and got up. "Fine! I don't have to listen to this! What's next? How do I get out of this place?"

He looked around the room and saw the door. "Makes sense," he said, and headed for the door. He couldn't leave though. He ran into it like a brick wall. He couldn't open it, couldn't interact with it. It might as well have been a painting. "Fuck!" he growled.

He turned back to sit on the bed, the only thing he seemed to be able to interact with. "This is so fucking stupid. Why didn't you just turn on the damn flashlight? Or the lamp? Dad's asleep by now. He'd never know. Why didn't you pull back the curtain and sleep where you could stare at the moon? It took you a full week to come up with that solution. Why didn't you just do it from the beginning? You're so fucking stupid."

An hour passed and he couldn't get out of the room no mater how hard he tried. He sat on the bed with a sigh. "You wanted so much to make him proud of you. To prove that you could do it. That you could make it through the night without the damn light, could be a big boy, a real man. You were fucking miserable all week. And he knew it, but he praised you for making it through the night that first morning and you soaked it in like a goddamned sponge. You've always been so damn eager to make him happy.

"Well let me tell you something, we shouldn't have cared so damn much. Now look at the mess we're in! The mess _I'm_ in. Doing a fucking job I hate with people who make me wanna gag. So, do us both a favor now, and not care. Don't care about what he thinks, because you'll never make him happy. And you're going to get yourself killed trying. I don't even fucking know how I got here, but something's not right, I know that. I probably got shot or something."

He looked down at the shaking lump under the blanket. "Come on, kid! Listen to me!" He reached out to shake him, but for just a second he felt the lump and then the world spun and he wasn't in the room anymore.

The scenery's bright sun shining on him was a stark contrast to the nightmare he was just in. He was in the schoolyard of his high school. There was something very familiar about the way the light shone on the trees and the warmth he felt coming over him. That's when he saw her coming toward him on the sidewalk. She was still perfect. He realized what he was reliving and turned to see his gangly fifteen year old self walking towards her from behind him. This was the day he asked her out.

His younger self walked right through him and he turned around to watch the situation unfold. He remembered feeling so nervous, but happy to be running into her. He'd conveniently planned it this way, knowing she headed from lunch early to her 6th period every day, and he had study hall and could roam freely.

"Hi, Anna!" he greeted cheerfully. He watched Anna's blue eyes flash and twinkle, her cheeks turn just a slight shade of pink.

"Hi, Kyle!" she said back enthusiastically.

They both stopped as they approached one another.

"Heading to lunch?" she asked.

"No, I had it last bell. I'm in study hall. Used needing to go to my locker as an excuse to come out and enjoy the weather a minute. I'm so glad it's not freezing today!"

"I know!" she said, rolling her eyes in agreement. "I was finally able to wear a dress today! It's so nice out!"

Sommers smiled to himself as he thought of how the rest of the conversation was about to go and felt a little proud that he managed it so well at fifteen.

"It's a very pretty dress. Then again, I don't think there's anything you could wear that would be ugly. You put it on, and it immediately looks better."

Anna turned pink but laughed mirthfully. "Are you flirting with me, Kyle Sommers?"

"Definitely," he said with a mischievous smile.

"Well?" she asked.

"Well what?" he asked back.

"Are you going to ask me out?" she said with an impish grin.

Kyle smiled and fell to his knees in a goofy parody. He raised his arms towards Anna and with the drama of a Shakespearian actor said, "Anna Pangino, will you grace this humble dweeb with your presence at the Spring Fling on Friday?"

She laughed with her hand over her mouth. "Why yes, Sir Dweeb."

Both young and old Kyle grinned from ear to ear as young Kyle got up and took Anna's hand and brought it to his lips with a bow. "Good lady," he said with the dramatic accent. "You are too kind to one such as me."

She laughed again as he kissed her hand and she pulled it back. "Give me your number, Sir Dweeb."

Young Kyle returned to his normal self and stood just a little closer to Anna as she wrote down his phone number in her planner. Older Kyle watched as young Kyle walked her to her next class, then practically bounced back across the yard to the main building that had his locker in it.

He felt immensely better than he had felt in the bedroom. He'd always been a bit of a dork. He was into science and math and doing things that most people his age considered geeky. Sure, he liked the occasional video game and kept up on all the latest action movies, but as he thought back on it he wondered if he would've done that on his own without his brother and dad's influence. Playing Call of Duty was a family night in, and though he enjoyed action movies, when his dad and brother weren't around he'd usually have a documentary on.

"Who the hell am I?" he asked.

The world swirled around him again, but this time he was prepared for it. When he landed he was in the Applebee's near his Dad's house, and Anna was sitting across from a nineteen year old him, looking as beautiful as ever even though she was obviously disgruntled.

"Aw, hell no! Please no!" He groaned loudly to himself and turned around to hide his face in his hands. "I don't wanna go through this again!" He groaned and sighed again before turning around. "Alright. Get it over with."

The scene unfolded in front of him and made his skin crawl. Younger Kyle was verbose and arrogant and completely oblivious to the way that Anna looked more and more disgusted with him as the twenty minutes went on. He was glad he was coming into it halfway through dinner. This was bad enough.

When he started bragging to her about all of the girls he'd hooked up with over the year he noticed something that he hadn't noticed years before. Anna didn't just look angry and disgusted, but sad and hurt. He wanted to slap his hand over his younger self's mouth. To grab his head and turn him to look at the slight glaze coming over this angel's eyes, but he couldn't. Instead, younger Kyle just tore into his steak and older Kyle waited for the sledgehammer that was about to come down.

"You know what, Kyle. This was a mistake. You've obviously changed, and quite frankly, it's appalling. I'm leaving."

"What the hell are you talking about?" he asked, sitting back and looking at her like she had three heads.

"You're being a royal dick! I never would've imagined that one year could change someone so damn much, but you're an egotistical douchebag. You're certainly not the caring and interesting man I once loved. I don't know who the hell you are. A manwhore, that's for sure. I never took you to become the walking venereal disease it sounds like you've become. And I always thought you were smarter than this, but it turns out that you're just the towheaded dumbass your father always wanted you to be. I don't even know why you're sitting here right now. It sure wasn't to catch up with me! All you wanted to do was rub it in my face that you're a walking penis. Funny, I always thought you were so much more than that. Turns out that I was wrong. Go to hell, Kyle."

Sommers cringed as he watched her get up. She was beautiful when she was angry. And just like he knew she was doing in courtrooms now, she'd cut him down to size. Explained it in a way that unequivocally described him. And as she got up, she was the lawyer, judge and jury.

Older Kyle wanted to slap him in the back of the head, but instead ran after her, which is what he should've done all those years ago. As he did he saw that she was crying. He watched her go to get in her car and sob. He stood outside of her car and felt an absolute sense of hopelessness and defeat come over him. He tried to reach out to tap on the window, but couldn't. Instead he placed his hand against it wishing he could rub her tears away.

He rested his forehead against the window and took a deep breath and then felt that sensation again that said he was changing memories.

He was sitting at the conference table with his team last Friday.

The groan that escaped his throat was truly pained. Truly. He went to the window and looked out of it as he listened to the Gibbses explain the plan for the upcoming week. He couldn't even look at himself when he heard him speak up.

"You mean I'm stuck behind a desk for a week so these two can go fuck?!" his own voice shouted. He cringed at himself. Then, biting on his fist, he turned and glared at his only slightly younger self while everyone else in the room did the same thing. He glanced at everyone at the table and really saw their expressions. He saw on their faces what they felt about him in that moment. He especially saw Critten's face and how he was lucky the young SFA hadn't come across the table right then and there and given him that beat down.

It was when the other team's quietest member spoke, and spoke with so much quiet rage in his voice, that he got a chill down his back.

"I think I speak for all of us when I say that we're all sick and tired already of your rhetoric. No one asked you, no one gives a damn about what you want, and no one wants to put up with you anymore. We didn't ask to have to serve alongside an inflated egotistical narcissistic homophobic idiot, so if you don't want to do the job assigned, there's the door. As for the rest of us, we're going to do what you're too stuck up to do- our fucking jobs. But please, continue to overcompensate with your _big guy_ attitude and childish whining that you're somehow delusional enough to think you're better than the rest of us. See where that gets you, because I can guarantee that it won't win you any friends or allies amongst us, and you'll find that out at the worst possible moment."

Older Kyle shuddered at the implication as younger Kyle rolled his eyes. What he hadn't realized then was that the team truly hated him enough to leave him hanging when he needed it. He'd thought they'd be too goody good to leave him stranded, but now that he heard it and saw all their faces again, he knew without a doubt that he was a goner one day.

"McGee, Critten, stay put. The rest of you get back to your desks," Gibbs growled, finally tearing his gaze from Kyle.

Older Kyle followed the rest of the group outside. He watched younger Kyle head for the steps as the rest of the team waited for him to get ahead of him so they could give each other less than covert glances of disgust. He watched himself sit at his desk and try to ignore the way everyone in the room texted back and forth on their phones about him. He knew that's what they were doing. Older Kyle didn't blame them.

Truth was that he didn't care that the two men were in a relationship. It wasn't a gay thing. It was just sickening sweet how they were all so fucking happy. He'd never had that, and as he looked at himself and looked back at the memories he'd experienced that day he knew why he hadn't. He moved to sit at Gibbs' desk and thought. Each thought was more self-loathing than the one before.

"You really have no idea how much of a prick you are, do you?" he asked his slightly younger self. "This isn't who we were supposed to become. Who _I_ was supposed to become. I was happier as a dork. I wasn't so bitter, angry, cold. I should go back to being that, but I don't know how. It's so late in the game to change. I've been this way for so long now." He tried to pick up the stapler from Gibbs' desk but his hand went through it. He sighed.

"These people are… ridiculous. But maybe they could be good for us. Well, that is if Critten doesn't kick my ass again, and if we survive getting shot or whatever else it is that happened to me. I wonder what happened? I don't really remember much. It's all fuzzy. Got my ass kicked, was chilling at my desk, and then… nothing. They say that trauma can give you amnesia. Maybe that's what's happening. I was probably doing something stupid though. Waking up will only mean that I'll be confronted with how stupid I was, and quite frankly, I don't want to face that any more than I want to face these dumbass memories, so I don't really care what happens."

He sat quietly for a long time. Then looked from Ziva to Tim who was coming down the stairs with Critten. He looked back at himself as he ignored the returning SFAs.

"I wonder if Dad has been notified yet. He's either going to be so pissed at my stupidity, or think that this is the best thing I've ever done if I pull through it. Another thing I'm not looking forward to."

He looked up at the stairs again a couple of minutes later and saw the Gibbses coming down the stairs together. He noticed that for just a moment it looked like they were reaching to hold the other's hand, but stopped themselves. Something about that hit him hard in the chest. They were restraining themselves.

He thought back to holding hands with Anna in the hallways at school, and how he took her hands in his so often when he kissed her. He had never once felt like he couldn't hold her hand while they were dating. Hell, he'd taken her hand in his when he asked her out. How could such a simple gesture mean so much?

And for just a minute he wondered if the two men had restrained themselves for professionalism or for fear of homophobic jerks. Probably both. He heard Parke's words in his head again and cringed. They all thought he was one of those homophobic jerks because of the way he'd been reacting to the two together. _It wasn't that they were men though!_ he practically shouted at himself. They were just too damn _perfect_. That kind of perfection doesn't exist. It doesn't last. _It's obnoxious_ , he told himself.

Gibbs came directly towards him and he jumped up from his chair in a frantic realization that he was sitting at his desk, only to remember that Gibbs couldn't see him. Even though he couldn't know he'd been there, he felt real fear that somehow Gibbs would just _know_. He tried to squeeze past him but brushed his shoulder and he felt it like he was really there.

Suddenly he wasn't there anymore. He didn't even feel the transition this time. He was in a driveway of a house that was definitely a crime scene. Red and yellow caution tape billowed around him, there were red and blue lights of LEOs around, and an ambulance was pulling away from the scene with sirens blaring.

He suddenly heard someone call out his name in a rough older voice.

"Sommers! Get your ass moving!"

When Kyle looked up he saw a man he didn't recognize shouting at him, only he wasn't really _him_ anymore. The man that growled a response back was a much older version of himself. And he looked rough. He'd put on some weight, was wearing a police uniform instead of an NCIS uniform, and he was going bald.

He grimaced as watched in disgust as the man chugged his way past him and around the side of the house. He followed in daunted repulsion as he saw him try to find anything of consequence for their case.

There was a large privacy fence around the back yard, and the only gate was the one that lead to the driveway. The two looked around for any signs of evidence, or at least much older Kyle did while modern day Kyle watched him in awe. Older Kyle scanned the back porch and then caught his eye on the shed in the corner. He clopped his way through the soggy yard towards it, his flashlight and gun out. He'd obviously heard something that his younger self hadn't. They moved together towards the small two-toned brown shed and then stopped in front of the door.

What happened next happened so fast. Older Kyle tried to open the door, only to come face to face with a teenager with a gun. In both of their surprise, they stopped, slackjawed. The kid panicked though, and there was a gunshot. Older Kyle was hit in the throat, and crumpled to the ground, his hand reaching for his wound. The kid took off running across the yard, and current day Kyle dropped to his knees to try and stop the blood flow, only to find he couldn't touch his older self. He screamed for someone to help, genuine terror ripping through him, but he watched himself die quickly as the blood poured from him in a way he'd never seen before. It took a whole minute before someone came and found him since a number of officers had gone after the kid as he ran down the driveway. Kyle didn't understand that. Why did no one come to check on him?

He sat in the sogginess as he waited for someone, anyone to come to his rescue, but there was no time. He watched himself die there in the back yard at the hands of some sixteen year old. Finally, a couple of officers came running through the back yard towards him, radioing for an ambulance. They got to him and saw the mess that was left of who he used to be and checked him over.

"Officer down!" a female cop shouted into her radio. "Officer down!"

"Damn it, Sommers!" said the male that was with her. "You dumbass! Why didn't you radio for backup?!"

The female reached for his pulse, but shook her head. "He's gone."

"Bled out pretty quickly," the man said. "Got him right in the artery."

"Captain, Sommers is dead," the female said into her radio. "We need you in the back yard."

The male took a look in the shed and nodded. "Got a bloody sweatshirt in here and a bloody shoe print. Well, at least a partial. The grass probably got the best of it."

It took a while before the Captain joined them, and in the meantime Kyle had to listen as the two talked shit about his now deceased self.

"Cap always said he was going to get himself killed for not being a team player," the female muttered.

"Looks like he was right," the man said with a soft scoff. "You were his partner at one point, weren't you?" he asked her.

"Yeah, for like two months. Let's just say that we weren't compatible, and soon I was paired with Kennedy and he got paired with Cohegan."

"Cohegan was his partner?"

"Yeah. That didn't last long either."

"I bet it didn't!" the man said with a soft chuckle. "She wouldn't have taken his shit for a minute."

"Mathis was the only one who could really deal with him, but that's because… well, he's Mathis. Two peas in a pod."

"Damn, now who's gonna get stuck with Mathis?"

"Not us, and that's all I care about," the female said.

"Amen, partner," he said with a smile for her.

When the Captain got there he just stood over the body of Kyle's former future self and shook his head. "Any ideas about what happened?" he asked.

"Looks like our perp was hiding in the shed. Sommers came up on the shed alone," they all shared a look and the Captain sighed. "And then was ambushed when he opened the door."

"Well, Crouch and Goode caught the prick trying to get over a fence a few doors down. He's not going to get away with it. Ambulance should be here in a minute. I'll go get the process started to notify next of kin. Who's he got?"

"He had a brother," the female said. "His dad died right before we were paired up six years ago, and he mentioned his brother a couple of times. Not sure if he's still alive though. Was military and it was never really clear if he was talking about him in the past tense because he was dead or because he had been cut out of his life."

"He had an ex-wife he liked to bitch about," the male said with a shrug.

"Yeah, I know," the Captain said. "She came in one day and threw a high heel at him, then started wailing on him with her purse. He just kept backing up and taking it until Mathis pulled her off him. Was the funniest damn thing I've ever seen."

"Why was she going after him?" the male asked.

"He'd slept with her sister. They were already getting divorced, but she found out about it."

"Damn," the female said. "I'd throw a shoe at him, too."

The world changed around him and he was no longer in a dark back yard. He was in a shabby apartment as he watched a much older version of his brother go through his belongings.

"Aaron!" he whisper-shouted. "Aaron, can you hear me?" he asked. "Of course you can't." He sighed and sat down next to him on the bed. Aaron was going through a box of stuff he'd found in the closet, and was holding a photo of the two of them when they were teenagers on a fishing trip with their dad. He remembered that trip. He hadn't caught anything, but they'd had fun camping. It was a good trip. Their dad had barely said anything to him about preferring to relax by the water reading than doing any actual fishing.

The photo made him smile and he looked up at Aaron's face only to find it full of disappointment and regret. The older man shook his head and tossed the photo back in the box and stood up. A woman came to the door.

"What's next, Dad?" she asked.

Kyle looked from her to him and back to her. This was his niece. She was beautiful.

"This box can go to the trash, too," he said, handing it off to her. "So much crap in here." Kyle looked around the sparse apartment and realized that he could only mean the box. That hurt and he actually curled in somewhat on himself.

"We've packed the truck with all of the stuff to drop off at the donation center. ReStore will be here this afternoon for the furniture."

"Great, honey. Thank you. We'll be out of here soon. We can get back on the road towards home tomorrow. Waste of a trip, really."

"Damn!" Kyle damn near shouted. "What did I ever do to you?!" He's jumped to his feet, but then sat down again. The female cop had said that he'd talked about his brother in the past tense, and that they'd been cut off from each other. Something must've happened that caused a bad rift between them. He may have always been jealous of his brother, but he loved him. He couldn't imagine what it was that could cause such apathy about his death.

The others left him alone in the room and he looked around. It was damn near empty. There was a dresser, a bed with no linens, an empty walk-in closet, and a large black chest at the foot of the bed. He wondered what was in it, but knew he wouldn't be able to open it so he sat on the bed and sighed.

"Okay, so that was freaky. Maybe I'm really dying right now. Maybe that's what's happening. Maybe I really did get shot and this is Purgatory. Maybe I'm just getting a chance to see all of my failures before I get sent to Hell. If Aaron hates me that much…" he trailed off. "I want to wake up now. I don't want to be here anymore. Can I wake up please?" he asked towards the ceiling. There was no response and nothing around him changed. He got up and tried to walk into the next room only to find he couldn't. He was trapped in this bedroom. "Well, shit." He turned and laid down on the bed.

"This life sucks. I feel like Scrooge," he said out loud to himself. "I swear, if I wake up, if I get out of this place, things are going to change. I don't want to live this miserable existence… anymore. When did I get so fucking lonely?" He sighed and closed his eyes. After thinking about the answer to that question for a few minutes, tears started sliding out from the corners of his eyes and running down his face.

A blur passed before him and he started jumping from scene to scene in a matter of seconds. First, he was sitting with his team at conference table, then he was in a bar with them laughing, and then he was walking with McGee and Ziva towards a crime scene. Next, he was smiling at a text with a few hearts after it. Suddenly, he was in a church full of people waiting for his bride to walk down the aisle. Then, there was a baby in his arms, and when he looked up, Gibbs was standing there with a smile like a proud father. "You did good, kid," he said to him.

And with a bright light and loud bang, he was suddenly not there anymore. He was back in his body and everything _hurt_ , but especially his head.

"Oh, god. What the fuck happened to me?"


	19. Chapter 19

_Hey! Lookie there! A second chapter this week! :D Some more NSFW stuff in this chapter. Kinda took a fun leap, and I hope you like it!_

 **Chapter 19**

Vance debated with himself for a few minutes after watching the video. It was touch and go. The saving grace was the point where you can audibly hear Critten say, "This time don't let me pin you." That made it sound like a fighting lesson. And the fight continued after the kick to the head. It looked painful, but not so much that they should've stopped the fight. The problem was that the fight had continued at all after the broken nose. Usually, in their gym, once blood has been shed the fight stopped. It's not a written rule, but rather an unspoken understanding between the agents.

He knew he was being biased though. Sommers had never struck him as an exemplary agent, and his constant trouble making with sexual harassment and his antagonistic approach to the Gibbses made him almost a villain. Critten on the other hand had most definitely become exemplary over the past few months and he had great hopes that the younger man would make big waves in the organization one day. He was smart, innovative, coming into his own as a leader, and political. However, he was also very protective when it came to his team and Gibbs'. There would be no doubts in anyone's mind about where his allegiances lay.

Coming to him directly though with the admission showed integrity and courage. He wasn't trying to hide behind the pretense that it was an accident that he kicked Sommers in the head. Vance knew that he wasn't going to lie about it when asked. He just had to coach him not to give up more than asked, because the guilt and shame he obviously felt was being pushed out there for the world to see.

He sighed and picked up his phone. This was the worst part of it. He opened the app and searched through the menu before he found what he was looking for. It didn't take long.

"Leon?" Jethro asked.

"Sorry to interrupt the honeymoon, Gibbs. We have a situation you need to be aware of."

"What's going on?" he asked. Suddenly Tony joined him in the frame of the video from over Jethro's shoulder. They were sitting outside at some kind of café or restaurant with a beautiful sunset in the background, and Vance felt the pang of regret that he was delivering this kind of news while they were on their trip.

"Good, you've got Tony with you. You both need to hear this."

"That doesn't sound good, Director," Tony said with a grimace.

"It's not. This morning there was a sparring match between Agents Critten and Sommers."

"Please tell me he didn't kill him," Tony said with a painful expression.

"Well, after the fight everything was fine, but now Sommers has been taken to the hospital with what sounds like a bad concussion. He passed out in the bullpen and is unresponsive. They think he's slipping into a coma."

"Shit," Tony said under his breath.

They were silent for a minute.

"How's Critten taking it?" Jethro asked.

Vance almost smiled at the concern. "Not well. He's with him at the hospital. Actually, I'm pretty sure both teams went. My bullpen is empty."

"I'd expect so, Director," Tony said. "Sommers may be a dick, but he's still a member of the team. None of us would let him go alone."

"And none of Tony's men would let Critten sit there and wait for bad news alone."

"I fully expected it," Vance said.

"We'll be on the next flight we can get," Tony said.

"I was afraid you would say that," Vance said. He started typing something into his computer while Tony and Jethro watched. "Looks like there's one that leaves out tomorrow at noon. I'll make arrangements for you to be on it."

"We can just get our tickets transferred," Tony said.

"Not for this one you can't. I'm getting you on a cargo plane into Norfolk. I'll have someone meet you there with a car." Both men nodded.

"I'm going to call McGee," Jethro said.

"And I'll call Critten," Tony echoed.

"Please do. I'm sure they both need it right now. I should warm you that Agent Critten is taking this very personally, but I've reviewed video from the match, and there was no indication that the blow to the head had that kind of impact." Tony nodded again. "And gentlemen, I'm sorry for ruining your honeymoon. We'll make it up to you."

"Let's just take it one day at a time, Leon," Jethro said with a nod. "We'll call in that favor one day."

"Understood," Vance said with a smirk.

They hung up and Tony looked at Jethro. "I'm so sorry, Jethro."

"Not your fault."

"But it's the result of what one of my guys did, and now our honeymoon is being cut short."

"We both knew that fight was going to go down, and we did nothing to stop it. And with Amira being mad at us, I'm kind of relieved to be going home."

Tony smiled at him. "I had the same thought. Okay, I'm going to call Critten. He's probably a mess right now."

"And McGee is probably having a meltdown."

Tony returned to his seat at the table of the patio café at the hotel and called Elly. The phone was answered on the second ring and the video kicked in to expose a very pale Elly. He was obviously distraught.

"Boss!" Elly said, the panic in his voice. "Boss, I did something… and…"

"Whoa! Calm down, Elly. I just heard from the director. I know what happened."

"Then you know I did this! I-"

"Stop! Tony almost growled. "You need to stop saying that right now. There are risks we take when we spar and he knew what they were. You did too. But unless someone asks you directly what happened, I don't want you to talk about it until I get there. Do you understand me?"

"Until- until you get here?" Elly asked in confusion. He stopped bouncing and looked at the phone's camera with shock. "You're coming home?"

"Of course we're coming home. You need me and Sommers needs Jethro."

"But- but it's your honeymoon!" Elly protested.

"There are much more important things than sightseeing and hotel romance, and I'm looking at them."

Elly reached up to wipe his eyes. They sat in silence for a long minute. "I- I didn't mean for this-"

"I know, Elly. It's going to be okay." There was a long few seconds of silence. "Do you believe me?"

Elly shuddered and wiped his eyes again, but nodded.

"Where are you?" Tony asked quietly.

"In the waiting room at the hospital. Ducky is trying to work it out so I can go back there with him."

"Do you think that's the best thing?"

Elly nodded. "He'd opened up to me about why he is the way he is. I want to be there for him."

Tony's eyebrows arched and he pulled his head back a little in surprise. "So, why is he the way he is?"

Elly swallowed. "He doesn't want to be an agent. He's only in law enforcement because of his dad. And Ducky told me that what he really wants to do is forensics."

"Wow, I… I wouldn't have expected that."

"Yeah. I know. I'd told him earlier that he had until tomorrow morning to decide if he wants to be on the team any more, and that if he really did, if he was really going to let us in, then I'd work it out so that everyone gave him a second chance."

"A big promise."

"The thing is, I think he really needs it."

"Well, let's just take this one day at a time and see what happens. We're getting on a flight into Norfolk tomorrow at noon. Call me if anything changes, and don't beat yourself up over this. Vance said that the video doesn't show any reason why the fight should've stopped after the blow to the head. He was a boxer, you know. If he doesn't see a reason why you should've stopped, then you're probably good."

"Oh! I needed to hear that so bad! Thanks for telling me!" Elly started crying again, only this time with a smile to his lips. The relief was palpable.

"We'll get through this."

Elly nodded and looked back at the phone. "I'm sorry you have to come home, but I'm really glad you are, Boss."

"Yeah, I kinda am too."

"Really?" Elly asked in surprise.

"Yeah. This has been great, but I miss Amira, and you guys."

"Awww… I know Amira will be ecstatic that you're coming home. Sierra will be, too. She's agreed to keep Amira for us tonight so I can stay at the hospital."

"Who is with you?"

"Everyone but Jimmy and Abby. They stayed back to hold down the fort."

Tony nodded. "Hang in there, kiddo. Call me later and update me, and call me as soon as possible if he wakes up."

"I will. Thanks, Boss."

"Not a problem."

Tony looked at Jethro who was talking to Tim as he leaned against the railing that looked out over the city. He took his phone back out and got a picture of him with the sunset as a backdrop, then got up and joined him.

"Yeah, McGee. I'll see you tomorrow night."

He hung up the phone and Tony leaned against the railing next to him. "What did he say?"

"That Critten is freaking out, but he was too. I could tell. He was trying not to care, but he did. What did Critten say?"

"That it was all his fault. He also told me that he got Sommers to open up to him earlier. Said that he never wanted to be an agent, but wanted to make his dad proud. Wanted to do forensics."

"Huh. Wouldn't have guessed that," Jethro said, turning to lean against the railing in with his back instead of his stomach.

"Yeah. He also said that he told him that he had until the morning to decide if he was going to stay on the team and that if he chose to, he'd make everyone give him a second chance."

Jethro let out a small bark of a laugh. "Kid's got balls, I'll give him that."

"Yeah, but he seemed to think Sommers genuinely deserves that second chance. And now he's in a coma. Funny how life does that."

"Yeah."

Jethro looked at the message that came through on his phone as it chimed at him. He squinted, holding it out from his face to read it, then smiled. She'd come through for him.

"What?" Tony asked, an eyebrow quirked in curiosity.

"It's a surprise," Jethro said with a smile and wink.

"Oh?" Tony asked. "What type of surprise?"

"We're going to make the most of our last night in Italy."

"Oh? A night on the town to forget about this disaster?"

"This is something special that we can't do back in the States," he said.

"Okay," Tony said, turning towards Jethro. "I'll bite. What should I wear?"

Jethro thought about it for a minute, then picked up his phone and texted her back.

 _Dress code?_ He asked. She replied that it was up to him, just don't come in looking like a bum. She continued giving him instructions on what to do when he got there and what to expect.

"Dress nicely?" Jethro said, unsure of what to say that wouldn't give away the surprise.

Tony chuckled. "Okay. I'm sure you'll tell me if I'm not dressed appropriately."

"And take anything I don't like off of you," Jethro murmured before turning and resting his hands on Tony's hips.

"Don't give me any ideas," Tony said with a bright and disarming smile. "We won't make it to your mystery location."

********WDYG?********

Ned went with the rest of the team to the cafeteria to find some food and was gone when Elly had gotten the call from Tony, so he'd gotten word from Tim that their bosses were coming home. He sighed in relief. He needed Tony there. He had no idea how to help calm Elly down. His solution was to go get him a Mountain Dew and some fruity Danish. He lucked out and found a lemon one, and was heading back up to Elly when his phone chimed. He tucked the Mountain Dew under his armpit and balanced the Danish on top of the coffee he'd gotten for himself as he reached for his phone. To his surprise, it was Other Ellie.

 _Ellie_ : Just had a breakdown. I feel better. Told my dad I want to be an NCIS agent.

Ned's eyes lit up and he started texting back.

 _Ned_ : I'm sorry that you had a breakdown, but it's totally understandable. I'm glad you feel better, and I'm psyched to hear that you want to join our crew!

 _Ellie_ : Yeah, I think it's what I need to do.

 _Ned_ : Well, we're in the middle of a situation. You know how Elly kicked Sommers' ass in the gym this morning? He apparently gave him a concussion. He passed out at work and now he's in a coma at the hospital.

 _Ellie_ : OMG! That's horrible! Poor Sommers! Poor Elly!

 _Ned_ : Yeah. He's freaking out pretty bad. And it's so bad that our bosses are coming home early from their honeymoon.

 _Ellie_ : Yikes!

 _Ned_ : Yeah… we're all at the hospital.

 _Ellie_ : Tell Elly that I'm thinking about him. What's everyone's reactions? Are they coming down on him pretty hard?

 _Ned_ : What?! Of course not! We know he didn't mean for something like this to happen. We've all got his back. And Sommers may be a prick, but we're all feeling really guilty because we orchestrated today's fight with the intention of watching him get his ass kicked.

 _Ellie_ : Wow. If something like that would've happened at NSA, everyone would be pointing fingers and isolating Elly, and there would be so much blame game going on. You guys really are something else.

 _Ned_ : Really? Well, just goes to show that you belong here with us.

Ned reached Elly finally and gave him the Dew and the Danish. He smiled and gave him a quick kiss of thanks.

"Tony is coming home!" he announced excitedly.

"Yeah!" Ned said, sitting down next to him. "Gibbs One called McGee. I'm so relieved."

"Yeah, me too."

"I bet!"

Greg flopped down on the other side of Elly and started talking to him, and Ned looked back at his phone as it chimed.

 _Ellie_ : I know that you meant that I belong at NCIS, but I can't help but feel like I should be there at the hospital with you guys. I can remember when you guys found me at the warehouse that Sommers took his jacket off and put it around me as I sat on the ground with Ziva. It's weird, but I'm worried about him.

Ned twisted his lip between his teeth and texted back.

 _Ned_ : Well… you'd be welcome, but you need to take care of yourself right now. You've gotta process all of this.

 _Ellie_ : Yeah, I do.

 _Ellie_ : But I feel safe with you guys.

Ned smiled at that.

"What are you smiling at?" Elly asked quietly.

"Ellie is texting me," he said, and handed the phone off to him for him to read the messages.

Elly smiled at it, then frowned. "Well, the position on Gibbs' team isn't available yet."

"May become available," Ned said. "We don't know yet if Gibbs is going to fire Sommers. Won't know that until he wakes up and the bosses get home."

Elly's face scrunched up. "Or, you know, if he never wakes up."

"He's going to wake up," Greg said confidently.

"What are you talking about?" Ziva asked from the seats across from them.

"Ellie Bishop wants to join NCIS. We were encouraging her to take Sommers' place when he got fired," Ned said.

Ziva nodded. "Could be a good fit," she agreed. "She's smart and capable, but she is going to need some time to handle everything that just happened to her."

"Well… that's not all." Elly said sheepishly, then told them about his ultimatum in the morgue earlier that day and what he'd found out about Sommers.

"A big promise," Parke said.

"Yes, but if Elly thinks that we should give him another chance, then I would not be opposed to trying," Ziva said with a small smile for Elly. "I have picked up on some of this tension over the past week myself. He is not a happy man."

"No, he's not," Elly said with a nod for Ziva of thanks for the support.

Ducky came out to join them in the lobby with one of the doctors. They all got to their feet to hear what had to be said.

"Hello everyone," Ducky greeted. "This is Dr. Shandra. She's got some information for you on Agent Sommers."

"Hello," she said with a small wave of greeting. "As you know, Kyle is in a coma from the concussion he received, but the good news is that there is a lot of brain activity. We fully expect him to wake up. We were able to relieve some of the pressure on his brain with a drainage tube. It was minimally invasive and we're watching for any additional pressure to build, but so far we haven't seen any. There was a slight fracture to the back of his skull, but we expect that to heal fine. Right now we're just waiting to see if the drainage was all that was needed, but we should know in the next 24 hours whether we need to take additional measures. We have him on some medications, and he's as comfortable as possible. We're playing a waiting game right now."

Everyone was relieved to hear the news, but Elly was so relieved he turned to rest his head on Ned's shoulder, and as he did so, Ned pulled him into a hug.

"I understand you'd like to see him. It should be okay for you to go back one at a time and someone can stay with him if you'd like."

Elly's head snapped up. "Me. I'll stay with him."

The doctor nodded, a little confused by the adamance.

"Elly can go see him first, and then we'll rotate out and then Elly can stay with him," Tim said.

The doctor nodded again. "Dr. Mallard assures me he can oversee this. Kyle is lucky to have a great support network like you."

"Thanks, Doctor," Greg said with a nod. The doctor nodded back then turned and nodded at Ducky.

"Elly," Ducky said, and Elly jumped at the chance to follow him to the back to see Sommers. Once they were alone inside the double doors of the corridor that led back to the rooms, Elly rested his hand on Ducky's arm.

"Ducky, how is he? Really?" he asked quietly.

Ducky rested his hand on Elly's. "We have full faith that he's going to be okay, my boy. I know you feel a great deal of responsibility for this. I must say, I do as well. I didn't see it."

"It's not your fault, Ducky. You're not the one that-" He stopped himself, remembering what Tony had told him. He shook his head. "By the way, the Gibbses are coming home."

"Oh my. I thought that may happen."

"Yeah. I felt both guilty as fuck and relieved as hell."

"I know how you feel. Shall we?"

Elly nodded and Ducky led him to the room. The sight that was before him was surreal. Sommers was laying in the bed with an IV tube out of his arm and another tube coming from the back of his head with a slightly yellow liquid coming from it

"Drainage tube. There hasn't been any additional drainage since they first put the tube in and started suctioning. They can't remove it from his head in case they have to drain more, and you can see on the bag that there are measurement lines to monitor it. If you'll be sitting with him, something to watch for is that it's at 17 milliliters right now. If it grows, let a nurse know. They'll be in periodically to check on him."

Elly nodded.

"I'll give you some time alone with him," Ducky said, patting his shoulder. Elly watched him go then looked back at Sommers.

After a long minute of silent staring, Elly whispered, "Dude, I am so, so sorry."

********WDYG?********

Tony came out of the bathroom to find that Jethro was dressed in his best black slacks and the button-down blue shirt he had worn at their wedding. Only this time the shirt was unbuttoned at the top and he was wearing a jacket. His new belt and his best black shoes completed his outfit.

"Damn," Tony said. "You look _hot_. Why do I feel underdressed?" he asked, turning slightly pink. He was dressed similarly, navy blue pants and jacket with the dark green and white pinstriped shirt he'd gotten before the trip that he hoped Jethro would like.

"You're definitely not underdressed," Jethro said, taking him in. Tony padded over to the couch and sat down to slip his shoes on with that endearing look of shyness he got only when Jethro complimented him.

"Okay," Jethro said, standing in front of Tony looking nervous and out of place. "If you hate it, just let me know and we'll leave right away. It was just a thought."

Tony squinted at him curiously. "You're nervous. I can count the times I've seen you nervous on one hand." He raised an eyebrow at him. "Where are we going?" He got to his feet until he stood in front of Jethro, his hands reaching out for Jethro's hips to pull him closer, enjoying the slightly pink tone to Jethro's cheeks and the embarrassed grin. He grinned back.

"You'll see," Jethro said. He took a deep breath and schooled himself. He had to put himself in a different headspace for this. He looked into Tony's eyes, then his right hand came up behind Tony's neck and pulled him towards him, kissing him. The kiss deepened and he let it. He was getting lost in the passion of it and bringing Tony's desire to the forefront. He suddenly pulled back, then moved to take Tony's hand. "Okay, let's go."

"But!" Tony coughed out with a laugh.

"You got everything you need?" Jethro asked.

Tony bent over and picked up his wallet and phone from the coffee table, slipping them into his pockets with his left hand. "Ready," he said with a smile.

Jethro led Tony down the hallway and with every step he was regaining his confidence. He had to tap into it for this and he was stamping down the nerves that kept trying to bubble up. It was going to be a fifteen minute drive to their destination and he knew he still had some things to explain to Tony when they got there so he could translate for them.

They got into their cab and Jethro gave Tony the address to give to the driver, who raised an eyebrow at him before nodding and driving off. They made small talk along the way with the driver and then they turned down a darker industrial street. Tony raised an eyebrow at Jethro, who smiled, but was having a hard time controlling his nerves. He knew that he was going out on a limb with this. The driver pulled into a lot with a series of nice cars. There was a canopied entrance to a door with a tall bouncer looking man next to it and a neon sign next to it. It was an upside-down blue triangle with an X in it.

"We're going clubbing?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow. Jethro handed some money to the cabbie and got out, taking Tony by the hand. They were a good distance away from the bouncer and the cab drove off but Jethro wasn't moving. He took a deep breath.

"Okay. This isn't a normal club," Jethro said, and he was glad it was dark out there because he knew he was turning red because sweat was dripping down his back. He was worried about Tony's reaction. It could go a myriad of different ways, and many of them were negative. Tony tilted his head and squinted his eyes as he looked at Jethro, his lips parting slightly as if he were trying really hard to understand.

"You're always hinting at your exhibitionist side," Jethro said quietly.

The dawning realization was more than evident on Tony's face. "W-w-wait… are you? Is this? Really?" he asked.

"I figured if there was any time to do it, it would be now," Jethro said, trying to tap into the logical process that had led him to taking this leap. "We're thousands of miles away from anyone who would recognize us. We can pretend not to speak the language to get out of uncomfortable situations. And we never have to see anyone here ever again. It's not like we're going to bump into them on the streets of D.C."

"Wow, you're serious," Tony said in awe.

"It might be too much. We might get in there and want to turn right back around, and if so, that's completely fine. This is totally at your pace. I just didn't want to get so lost in our family and life that we never took this risk when sometimes it seems like you really want it."

Tony nodded slowly as he thought it through.

"We don't have to go in," Jethro said, feeling a little stupid suddenly.

"I've done a lot of crazy things, Jethro. This might be the craziest," Tony said. "But… you're right. It's something for the bucket list. But some rules?"

Jethro nodded.

"Your comfort means just as much as mine. If you're not comfortable, we go." Jethro nodded, and Tony nodded back. He thought for a moment and took a deep breath. "And it's just us. No one else."

"Of course!" Jethro said, taking Tony's hands.

"No one ever finds out. No Abby, no Fornell, no anyone."

Jethro nodded.

"We drink, but stop at tipsy."

Jethro nodded again, seeing the sense in that. He explained what he'd been told.

"When we go in, there's going to be someone to pay the cover and they'll ask you what color band. We want red. The colors all mean different things about what you're open to, and red means you're here with someone and don't want to play with anyone else."

Tony nodded. "Okay. I like that. That's helpful."

"Do you want to do this, Tony?" Jethro asked.

Tony smirked. "You mean take the opportunity to let everyone know who has stolen my mind, body, and soul? Yeah… yeah, I think I do."

"Okay," Jethro said, swallowing hard as he realized that he was going to have to go through with this. He took a deep breath and leaned forward to kiss Tony again. Tony kissed him back passionately and Jethro was surprised to find the heat in it. He pulled back, smirked, and pulled Tony towards the door. The bouncer nodded at them and they entered the large industrial door to find a dimly lit interior with a man talking to two women, one of which was standing dressed in a leather thong, bustier, and collar complete with leash which was held in the hand of the woman next to her. Both men took in the sight and then turned to each other with a raised eyebrow.

The women turned and walked between two large and heavy black curtains that kept the rest of the club from view. The man motioned for Tony and Gibbs to move forward. Tony took over the conversation and Jethro watched him, enjoying the way the language rolled off of Tony's tongue. Tony pulled out his wallet and paid the cover charge and the man pulled two red bands from his podium and Tony held out his wrist. The band was snapped around it, and Jethro offered his wrist for his. He smirked at Tony as it clicked into place, and then his eyes darted to the man before he nodded and led Tony through the curtains, summoning all his confidence.

They stopped once they got through into the actual club to take it all in. It was a large room with smaller curtained off cubbies along one wall. Low bass driven music was playing that made the floor vibrate under them and blue, purple and red lights flashed everywhere. There were people in all states of dress, some fully dressed, some not dressed at all, and many dressed in various leather outfits that left nothing to the imagination.

There was a long glass bar lit by blue lights on top of black wood off to their left. Tony's eyes fell upon it and looked at Jethro. "Drink," he said.

Jethro nodded. "Definitely," he said. At the bend of the bar they both noticed a man sitting on a stool with his pants around his ankles, a much younger man on his knees in front of him with his dick in his hand as he talked to one of the bartenders and drank from his beer. His free hand moved to guide the younger man's head, and Tony and Jethro both moved along down the bar to find a couple of free stools to sit on for a moment while they got their bearings.

A young bartender approached them that looked eerily like Elly and asked what he could get them to drink. Tony ordered them their favorites and the man nodded. He struck up a conversation with Tony, asking if it was their first time there.

Tony told him that it was and the man nodded with a disarming smile as he poured Jethro a double bourbon. He looked at their bands and pointed casually at them, telling Tony that they would keep them safe. Everyone respected the bands there, and if they didn't they were thrown out on the spot and banned. There were no second chances. Tony nodded, thanking him for his drink and handing him his card to pay.

He turned to Jethro and paraphrased what he'd been told, and Jethro nodded sipping his bourbon.

He concentrated on Tony. He wasn't really interested in everything going on around him, and he decided that he wasn't going to let it interfere with the real reason why he was here. Tony was why he was there. Why he was in Naples, why he was on his honeymoon, why he was in a sex club. The man next to him loved him more than anything and he'd do anything to prove that he loved him back just as much. He rested his hand on Tony's thigh and Tony sipped his drink as he looked back into Jethro's eyes.

The bartender handed the card back to Tony who took it with his left hand. He noticed Tony's ring and nodded at Jethro. "Honeymoon?" he asked, a thick accent to his English. Tony nodded with a smile and Jethro smirked at the bartender. "I hope you enjoy!" he said, smiling at them as he turned to his next customer.

"I plan on it," Jethro said, leaning in to kiss Tony, catching him by surprise. It was the type of kiss that simmered with passion, but didn't explode. It was the type that would build up if you simply let it, but Jethro wasn't ready to let it. He knew he needed a little more liquid courage, and by the way Tony shook just a little he knew Tony did, too. He pulled back and smiled. Tony slowly opened his eyes and smiled back. He took a drink of his Long Island and Jethro took one of his bourbon. They both looked out over the club, wondering where they'd be most comfortable. There were dark places everywhere, only lit occasionally by the roaming lights that moved with the music.

There were also multiple areas with colored spotlights shining down on them. Most of them were occupied by people already. One had four men laying in a square and giving each other blowjobs. Another had a woman licking another's feet in a prostrate position while her ass was smacked with a riding crop. Each was as different as the next. Tony was comforted to see that in one of the spotlights there was a couple with red bands on their wrists, but otherwise they were naked, and the sex they were having was much tamer than everyone in the other spotlights. He wasn't interested in being the center of attention like that, but it was nice to see that they wouldn't be the only ones not interested in the harder BDSM displays they saw around them.

The thought made Tony think of their cuffs waiting back in the room. He imagined himself cuffed around one of the large stone pillars in the room while Jethro fucked him from behind as he held on. He was partially turned on and partially embarrassed. He looked over to one of the dark areas and saw that there was a couch that faced the crowd. There were end tables on each end of it for drinks and other belongings, but it was currently unoccupied. There was one of those stone pillars near it, so there wasn't anyone grinding on one another close by. It looked nice and secluded while still being out in the open.

"How about we go over there?" Tony asked, nodding towards it.

Jethro turned to look over his shoulder at where Tony was gesturing and looked back. "Okay," he said. They picked up their drinks and made their way over to the couch. It was black patent leather and there was a bowl of condoms and tiny packets of lube sitting on the end table next to it.

"That's convenient," Jethro said with a dark chuckle. "Condoms would mean less mess to clean up." He took a drink from his glass and sat it next to the bowl. Tony was downing his drink behind him, ignoring the burn of the different liquors as they went down this throat at rapid fire speed. Jethro turned to sit on the couch and as he fell he saw Tony finish the glass. Tony smirked and sat the glass on the table next to him, then instead of sitting on the couch he straddled Jethro's lap.

"No condoms," he said as hands fell to either side of Jethro's head and leaned in to him. "I want to feel you inside of me until you take me back to the hotel and wash me clean in the shower." Jethro was suddenly on fire as Tony leaned in to kiss him passionately, that explosion that was missing before more than evident now. Jethro's hands went to Tony's sides under his jacket, feeling both his body and his tongue at the same time. They slid up Tony's body and soon the jacket was on the floor.

Tony rocked over Jethro's lap, both of their cocks hard against each other. Jethro felt like he was on fire. Tony thought he was going to suffocate under the weight of his clothes. He started to unbutton his shirt but Jethro's fingers were soon taking over and Tony's shirt joined the jacket. Tony arched his back as Jethro reached up to tweak his nipples and he rocked down on Jethro again. His hands reached forward to start working on Jethro's buttons. He wanted to feel him. They started kissing again, their hands roaming across each other's chests now that Tony had access. They took a few minutes to explore, Tony leaning forward to let Jethro suck and bite on his nipples.

Tony's breath caught in his throat and his mouth opened as he tossed his head back.

"If you're going to open your mouth like that you'd better be putting my cock in it," Jethro murmured as he licked up Tony's throat.

"Fuck!" Tony gasped. He knew he was flushed. He wondered if anyone was watching them, but didn't want to look. Just the knowledge that they could be was turning him on so much that he thought would explode if only Jethro would reach out and stroke his cock. He slid down and off of Jethro's lap until he was on his knees in front of him. Jethro ran his fingers through Tony's sweat-damp hair. Tony looked up into Jethro's eyes seductively as his hands expertly undid Jethro's new belt and unzipped his pants. He reached up and Jethro arched up off the couch so Tony could pull his pants down to his feet. The line had been crossed.

Tony kept his eyes trained on Jethro's as he took his cock in his hand and enclosed his mouth around the head. Jethro's head fell back on the couch with a moan and Tony closed his eyes as he started an earnest sucking and stroking with his tongue and lips. He could taste Jethro's precum and relished in it. He made sure he slurped with precision in case anyone was watching. He wanted to show them that he knew what he was doing, and that Jethro was getting what he deserved. He still couldn't bring himself to look anywhere other than at Jethro though.

Jethro's fingers carded through Tony's hair as he looked down at Tony working him over. He didn't have the same convenience though that Tony did. He was facing the rest of the room, and he could see that there were a few people watching them intently, including the woman holding the leash of the woman that had walked in. She watched them as her collared friend went down on her, a smirk on her face. The bartender that had served them was also keeping an eye on them. Jethro wondered fleetingly if he got off on watching the new people experience their first time, or if he was watching with some kind of protective nature over the newbies. He didn't hold that thought long though as Tony turned his attention to his balls.

"Damn it, Tony," he groaned. "Get up here." He reached into the bowl next to him and grabbed a packet of lube, tearing it open with his teeth before lubing himself quickly as a now naked Tony straddled him again. They didn't have to talk about it. Their eyes locked as Jethro held his dick and guided it into Tony's ass. Tony's face melted into ecstasy and his head went back as he balanced himself with a hand on each of Jethro's shoulders and slid down until Jethro was entirely in him. He looked down and met Jethro's lips in a filthy kiss that continued as he started to slowly ride him.

"That's it," Jethro said quietly, pulling back from the kiss as Tony's speed increased. "There you go. Atta boy," he said with a smirk. Tony smiled as he rose and fell over Jethro again. "Can you see them?" Jethro asked quietly, his hands coasting down the muscles of Tony's chest and stomach. "Can you see them watching you?"

Tony shook his head no, but rode Jethro harder and faster than before, his brain unable to form a complete thought.

"That's right… take it…" Jethro said quietly, his eyes watching Tony but taking in their spectators in his peripheral. The bartender was openly watching, causing a few people from the bar to watch as well. The woman on the leash was giving her dominatrix an obvious orgasm as she watched them. The couple that had been in a spotlight earlier with the red bands had curled up in a leather armchair together and were watching them intently.

He found himself with an inexplicable urge to demonstrate his dominance over Tony in front of these people's gaze. He grabbed Tony's hips and slammed him down on him, holding him in place while Tony whined. "Stay there," he said firmly, then took Tony's cock in his fist. He gave him a series of fast strokes that made Tony let out a high-pitched keening sound. "Come for me, Tony," he beckoned.

Tony cried out in almost a howl that cut through the music as he came quickly all over Jethro's hand. He looked down at Jethro, his eyes glazed over and his mouth open as he was lost in his post orgasmic haze. Jethro held his hand up to Tony. "Clean it up," he demanded and Tony nodded lazily before leaning forward and licking the cum off of Jethro's fingers and palm. Jethro could see the bartender's expression and smirked to himself. His mouth was hanging open slightly and he'd given up all resemblance of trying to help customers while he and the others at the bar watched with open interest. The entire experience was keeping Jethro hard deep inside Tony.

Once he was sure that Tony had gotten all of the cum off of his hand, he nodded at him. "Come here," he said, taking a deep kiss from Tony to taste himself on his tongue. "Okay, now you can finish me off." Tony nodded and started his ride again. Jethro had to balance him and he knew that the Long Island had definitely kicked in. He watched Tony closely, ignoring everyone else as he got closer and closer to his own orgasm. When he finally came it was with his head back, his eyes closed and a moan that lasted for what felt like forever. Tony fell forward, his chest against Jethro's and his head in the crook of Jethro's neck. Jethro turned his head and kissed Tony on the cheek.

"Don't fall asleep yet, Tony," he said, reaching for his glass of bourbon and knocking it back. He did an inconspicuous glance around and everyone else's attention was elsewhere now except for the bartender which kept looking over despite having gone back to serving customers. He felt a little weird about that suddenly because the kid looked a lot like Critten, and he imagined Critten seeing them like this and had to push it out of his head.

"Come on, Tony," he coaxed, running his fingers through Tony's hair. "Let's head back to the hotel."

Tony nodded, then climbed slowly off Jethro's lap and slipped back into his pants and boxers. Jethro picked up his shirt and jacket and handed them to him one by one as he put himself back together. Tony looked a little embarrassed suddenly, and Jethro pulled him towards him and back into his lap for another deep kiss.

"You were wonderful," he whispered to him, his forehead falling against his as he wrapped his arms around Tony and felt the most protective feeling he'd ever felt for Tony come over him. "Slip your shoes on and let's head out."

He got up and balanced Tony as he stepped into his shoes, then guided him to the door. Tony seemed to be a fog, but Jethro caught the bartender's eye by chance and got a wink. Once they stepped out into the cool night air, Tony shivered and took a deep breath. Jethro could see him coming out of the fog.

"I'm going to need you to come back, Tony," Jethro coaxed. "You'll need to tell the cab driver where we're going." Tony nodded and took another deep cool breath. They walked over to the street and saw a couple of cabs hanging out on the next corner. The rest of the industrial neighborhood was empty other than the club patrons and a couple of people walking a distance away. They started walking towards the cabs and Tony found his voice.

"Holy shit, Jethro!" he said excitedly. "Did we really just do that?!"

Jethro started laughing and couldn't stop. Now that they were away from the club the whole experienced seemed surreal. He wiped at his eyes as Tony turned to start walking backwards so that he could look at him.

"We really just did that!"

Jethro nodded. "Yeah, we did."

"Wow…" Tony turned so that he was walking side by side with Jethro again. He checked his watch. They'd only been in the club an hour and a half. "We kinda rushed it."

"Yeah, but I think the situation required it."

"Yeah, I agree," Tony said with a nod.

They reached the cabs and climbed in the back of one. Tony gave the driver their hotel info and they sat back as they watched the streetlights pass.

********WDYG?********

"Oh, god. What the fuck happened to me?" Sommers tried to say, only it came out as a series of mumbles.

"Whoa! Hold on! Take it easy!" a familiar voice said to him, resting a hand on his shoulder to keep him from trying to sit up. The hand was removed and the familiar voice could be heard a little further away yelling for a nurse. "He's waking up! He's waking up!"

He took a few deep breaths and found out that his ribs still hurt, but that pain was negligible over the pain in his head. He slowly opened his eyes and saw that Critten was standing next to his bed. A smiling nurse joined him on the other side and stared down at him.

"Welcome back!" she said softly. "We were worried about you. Got quite a concussion."

"You were in a coma for the past 12 hours," Critten said, sitting down in a chair right next to the bed. "We were all super worried about you. I'm so, so, so sorry, man."

"You, you were?" he asked, trying to sit up again.

"Careful there," the nurse said, helping him sit up and raising the bed so he could. "You have a tube in the back of your head. Do not move it. I need to go get the doctor."

"There's a what where?" Sommers asked drowsily.

"You've got a tube going to your brain. They had to drain some fluid off of it. That kick I gave you to the back of the head gave you a concussion and caused fluid to gather along in your head. They drained it, but now it has to be removed."

"Tube to my brain?" he asked.

"Yeah," Elly said.

"And you-" Sommers asked, in shock that Elly was there of all people.

"Yeah, it's my fault. I am so sorry, man."

"You stayed?" he asked.

Elly blinked. "Stayed? You mean with you? Of course I did!"

"Huh," Sommers said, blinking himself awake.

"Both of our teams stayed. They've been in the lobby all night. Dr. Mallard is with them, too. We were all really worried about you."

Sommers let that sink in as he tried to get his bearings. These people cared about him. He suddenly remembered his time in his memories and the flashes of what's to come. He remembered laying on the bed and feeling so lonely. But these people stayed with him.

"I don't want to be alone," he croaked out, and a tear slipped over his cheek.

"Aw dude, you're not alone. I'm not going anywhere."

"Where's my dad? Where's Aaron?" he asked.

"We called them. Your dad was planning on getting a flight out tomorrow morning, well in a few hours really, and your brother is trying to arrange leave to come see you."

"Really? They're coming?" he asked, trying to wrap his head around that.

"Yeah. I mean, we weren't sure if you were going to wake up."

"Oh. They don't have to come now. I'm okay, right?"

The nurse and the doctor came back into the room.

"Welcome back!" Dr. Shandra said, smiling at him and going to look at a bag hanging from a pole with the yellowish liquid in it from the head tube. She looked at a machine that was reading out something attached to it, and nodded. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Kyle Sommers."

"And who is this guy next to you?" she asked.

"Elly Critten," Sommers confirmed. Elly nodded at him with a small tight smile.

"Very good. The pressure in your brain has gone down substantially. We can remove the catheter." She turned to the nurse who nodded at her and went to get a tray of stuff from the cabinets. It only took about ten minutes and the tube was out of the back of Sommers' head and the wound it left was packed and dressed.

"You're going to be in here a couple of days while we monitor you for signs of relapse and get some medications in you. You had a small skull fracture that led to some pressure build up in your head. You'll be 100% in no time."

"Thanks," Sommers said, reaching up gingerly to feel his head. "My head hurts."

"It's going to for a while. We'll get some stronger pain killers in your IV soon," the doctor said, nodding again to the nurse. They both headed out of the room and Elly sat back down.

"I should go tell everyone you're awake!" He moved to get back up as he remembered they didn't know yet. Sommers reached out and grabbed for his arm though. He missed, but Elly sat back down.

"Wait. Don't go yet." He was quiet for a long minute while he thought about what to say.

"You okay?" Elly asked.

Sommers shook his head no. "I had dreams. Very real dreams."

"They say that can happen in a coma," Elly assured him.

"These were more like memories," Sommers said, trying to clear his voice and convey what he was feeling and thinking. "And I don't like what I saw. I- I don't like me." He looked at Elly and shook his head a little. "I don't like who I am. I want to be better. I want to be different."

Elly blinked. He wasn't sure what to say about that, so he just said, "Okay."

"Do you think…" Sommers swallowed hard, and another tear fell over his cheek. "Do you think you guys can teach me to be different? I want- I want to be happy."

Elly swallowed, feeling his own eyes burn a little. He rested a hand on Sommers' elbow. "You should be happy. Everyone deserves to find what makes them happy."

"I don't know if I do."

"Sure you do," Elly said with a small smile.

"I don't want to be alone."

"You're not," Elly assured. "I'm right here."

"No. I'm so alone."

Elly suddenly understood what Sommers meant. "You mean, big picture alone. You're lonely."

Sommers nodded. "And you guys are just all so… happy… and not… alone. You're all just _together_. And I think I've been so angry about it because I don't have anyone to be together with."

Elly gave Sommers a sad smile. "Well, you're not alone anymore. You've got us. And it's not like we don't have our problems. Like I was telling you, we've all got-"

"Yeah! But that's just it. You've got these problems, but you're still happy, because you're not alone. And I've never known how to be that."

"What about your dad and brother?" Elly asked.

"We just… we're not like that, you know? We might've been, once. I was happier when I was younger, but now we're just… not. I don't know what happened."

Elly nodded and sighed. He thought for a moment before speaking again. "You know that my dad and brother are both Navy, right?"

Sommers shook his head. He hadn't realized that.

"Well, they are. And my brother and I sat down together at one point this summer and had a good talk. And I realized that he's a good guy, just very different from me. And because he's so different, in ways that my dad wanted me to be different, I'd put up this wall against him. I'd shut him out because I'd lumped him together with my dad, and my dad… well, I told you that he's now banished me."

Sommers nodded slowly.

"Eric though, Eric was supportive. And I've been talking to him more, and I've found that though we're different in a lot of ways, we're the same in a lot of ways that I'd taken for granted. He's much older than me, so I had always had this idea in my head that he was always going to look at me as his baby brother, but he treats me like an equal now that we're adults. He's still protective, and I even believe that he loves me, but he knows that I'm an adult that's capable of making my own life. And my stepmom! Damn, she's amazing. And I'd never let her in for a number of reasons, but I feel like I have a mom again, you know? Maybe it won't be the same for you, but you should reach out to them. Try to make a connection."

Sommers nodded again. "Do you think they'll come?" he asked quietly.

"To see you? I don't know if your brother can right now, but you should try with your dad. He was really worried when we told him what happened."

"Really?"

"Yeah. McGee said he wanted every little detail. You want to call him while I go tell the others that you're awake?"

"I don't know what I'd say to him. Will you call him for me and tell him I'm okay. I don't know if I can handle that right now."

"Yeah. I will."

"Thanks," Sommers said, laying back with a sigh.

"I've got a question for you," Elly said quietly. Sommers looked at him. "Do you really want to be a member of this team? Do you really want to get sucked into our crazy family?"

Sommers got a flash of a memory from his coma. It was him holding a baby, and Gibbs standing there saying, "You did good, kid." He felt a surge of hope fill him. Hope and longing. The tears spilled over and he nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"Okay then. We'll work together and make it happen."

"Together?" Sommers asked.

"Of course. You'll never have to face anything alone again with us. We're your team."


	20. Chapter 20

_They're home! I'm so glad to be bringing the Gibbses home. I miss having them the main focus of the story. Hopefully you enjoy!_

 **Chapter 20**

Elly came through the double doors with a bright smile on his face.

"He's awake!" he shouted as he approached his friends. Cheers and words of relief were shouted just as loudly.

"Can we see him?" Abby asked, having joined them after work.

"Doc says that you can go back two by two, but be quick. They want to give him some painkillers that will make him drowsy. He's got a hell of a headache."

"We're first," Tim said, getting to his feet and motioning to Ziva.

"Indeed," Ziva said, joining him. They headed for the doors and Ducky went with them so he could talk to the doctor. They were surprised to find Sommers had obviously been crying when they entered the room.

"Hey, Sommers," Tim said quietly as they came to stand next to his bed. "How are you feeling?"

Sommers chuckled darkly. "Like I have a hole in my head. Oh, wait, I do."

Ziva smirked at him. "We are very glad you're awake."

"We were really worried," Tim said. "You scared the hell out of us."

Sommers nodded slightly. "That's what Elly said." They were quiet for a long moment, then he started again. "Thanks. You know, for caring. That… that means a lot to me."

Tim and Ziva looked at each other briefly. Both of them were taken aback by that.

"We take care of our own," Ziva said quietly.

Sommers nodded solemnly.

"The question is," Tim started, "are you one of our own? Have you made a decision about whether you are staying or going? I mean, after this, I wouldn't blame you for going."

Sommers nodded again. "If you'll have me," he said quietly, his voice breaking. He cleared his throat. "I am so, so sorry for being such a dick." He gave Ziva the slightest smile with that, and found a much larger one returned. "I'm not… I'm not happy, but Elly said that you guys can help me with that. And if you could… Well, I'd really appreciate it."

"We'll do our best," Tim assured.

"But in order for you to be happy, you will have to start with yourself," Ziva said. "That is not something that we can give you. We can support you though as you try to find what it is that makes you happy."

"I know," Sommers said. "I have a lot of work to do. But I think, if you guys help me, I can do it."

"Okay. We're in," Tim said. "To start, you need to apologize to both Gibbses as soon as they get back for what you said on Friday. You need to talk to them about why you're not happy. They aren't going to make it easy on you."

"I know! I feel so stupid! It really has nothing to do with them as two dudes. I don't want you to think that I have a problem with that. It's just that you're all _so damned happy_ , and I'm… _not_. I guess I've just been jealous. Miserably jealous."

"That is good to know," Ziva said. "You should tell them that when they get home tonight."

"They're coming home?!" he asked in a panic.

"Of course they are. Between you being in a coma and Elly being such over a mess about putting you in said coma, they have to. They care about all of us, and that includes you." Tim spoke matter-of-factly, and Sommers started crying again.

"I'm sorry," he said, wiping his eyes and sucking back the snot, which made Tim grimace and reach to hand him some tissues. "I'm such a mess. I think this whole thing has made me realize how much I hate myself, and between that and this headache I'm a blubbering idiot."

"I have been there," Ziva said. "Self-realization is painful. You will not grow though without pain. Let it fuel your transformation. I find it is cathartic."

Sommers blew his nose and nodded. "Thanks."

"We need to go. Everyone else wants to come visit before they head home and get some sleep. Elly is determined to stay with you tonight." Tim patted his shoulder hesitantly, but it made Sommers smile sadly, so he smiled back.

"Thanks for being here. It really does mean a lot."

"You're welcome. We will come by tomorrow and see you again. Get some rest," Ziva instructed, then turned and led Tim out. Ducky and Abby were waiting outside the room for their turn.

"How is he?" Abby asked, slightly wringing her hands, a guilt-ridden look on her face.

"He's in a weird place," Tim said.

"Weird like how?" Abby asked.

"He's not very happy with himself right now," Ziva said.

"Be gentle, Abs," Tim said, reaching to kiss her cheek before going with Ziva out to the lobby.

Ducky led Abby into the room. The look of surprise on Sommers' face took them both off guard.

"Dr. Mallard. Abby," he said, trying to sit up some. "I didn't realize you two were here."

"As you will come to learn, I suspect," Ducky started. "I act as a sort of liaison between the hospital staff and the NCIS staff. It makes things easier when one of our own is injured."

Sommers nodded. "I appreciate that." He gave Abby a sheepish smile.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, standing at the foot of his bed.

"Horrible," he admitted. "My head hurts, my body hurts, everything hurts. And I'm so mad at myself for how I've treated all of you. I wanted to tell you all that I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm not _this_. I hate this. I don't want to be like this."

Abby swallowed hard. "Ducky told me that you don't really want to be an agent. Is that true?"

"Pretty much. But I've realized that this team is something special, and I'd like to try to be a part of it. If you guys will let me. I completely understand if you don't want me. I've been a total prick."

Abby felt confused. She felt guilty for recording the fight and getting everyone together to watch it go down, but the man in front of her had been such a gross human being, hearing nothing but the worst of him since the first time she'd heard his name. It was going to take more than an apology to make this right, but she was also not innocent with the video of his ass-kicking on her phone.

"Well, maybe if you change, things will change for you. If you want things to get better, then you have to get better, both physically and mentally."

"I know. And Elly said he'd help me. And Tim and Ziva are going to try I think, too. I'm really going to try."

"Good," Abby said.

"How is your head?" Ducky asked.

"Hurts like a bitch."

"Does the dressing hurt in the back? Or does it hurt all over?"

"Both. I have a hole in my head after all."

Ducky smirked at him. "More than one, I'd hazard."

That made Sommers chuckle.

"Dr. Shandra assures me that you'll be better in no time. You should be home by Monday. Just try to rest, listen to your nurses and doctors, and I'll be by to check on you tomorrow. I think we need to go home and get some rest. The morning will be coming quickly."

"Thanks, Dr. Mallard. I will see you tomorrow."

"Rest up," Ducky said, then turned and led Abby from the room.

Elly and Ned came in next.

"Hi," Sommers said, feeling especially sheepish because of how he knew he'd crossed a line the other night with Ned when they crossed paths in the head.

"Hey. Greg had to go home to be with his wife, but he sends his best and is glad you're awake and safe," Elly said, coming to sit next to the bed. Ned took the chair on the other side.

"Elly told me you're going through some stuff," Ned said, taking control of the awkward vibes in the room.

Sommers sighed. "Big time. I'm sorry, man. I know I'm a dick."

"Oh, you're beyond a dick," Ned said. Elly's eyes got wide, but this wasn't friendly goofy Ned, but MTAC Ned, and like usual he was torn about how he felt. "You've been nothing but a royal pain in the ass since you came to the bullpen."

Sommers looked down at his hand and fiddled with his plastic wrist band with his name on it. "I know," he said softly.

"Why should I believe that you're going to change?" Ned demanded with an equally soft rage.

"Because I can't keep going like I am," Sommers said, raising his wet eyes to Ned. "I absolutely hate myself and my life and I don't know who I am anymore. I want to find my way back to someone who I respect, and I don't respect myself right now. I don't know how I got to be this way, but I'm going to find a way to undo it. It's not just about changing for you guys to like me. Whether I stay or I go, I'm going to change. This is no way to live."

Ned hadn't expected that. Elly had tried to prepare him, but when the tears started flowing again he was flabbergasted. His rage simmered to a halt and he felt sorry for the man in front of him. He didn't want to feel sorry for him. It was easier to be angry and hate him. It gave everyone around them a mutual enemy. But that thought made his resolve break. The fact that the younger man was laying in a hospital bed with tubes coming out of him and that he wasn't blaming them showed that he was on the wrong side of this battle. They'd put him there, together. And instead of being angry at them he was asking them for help and acceptance. It was all he'd wanted in the first place. How could he deny Sommers a second chance when he was so obviously desperate for one?

"Fine," he finally said. "But we're going to _hound_ your ass. If you start stepping out of line, expect every single one of us to call you on it."

Sommers nodded, meeting Ned's eyes. "I expect it."

"Good," Ned said. "I need to head home for some sleep. Elly is staying here overnight with you. Be nice."

"I will," Sommers assured him.

"You'd better." Ned got up and Elly joined him. They went to the door and stepped into the hallway. "You sure you're good? Do you need anything before I leave?" Ned asked with a completely different demeanor.

"I'm fine, baby. Not my first all-nighter. Once his dad gets here in the morning I'll head home and get some sleep."

Sommers' heart leapt like it was trying to escape his chest, and a sense of panic came over him. His dad was actually coming!

"Okay," Ned said. "Try to nap. I love you."

"I love you, too." They reached to take one another's hands and Elly leaned in to kiss Ned, who gladly reciprocated.

For a brief moment, Sommers wanted to roll his eyes, but the handholding made him think of Anna again, and he went soft inside. He was suddenly sad, and once again felt very lonely. He looked away as Ned left and Elly watched him go.

Elly turned with his arms crossed and a smile on his face before coming to sit next to Sommers again. They were quiet for a long minute, then Sommers spoke up.

"I want that one day."

Elly got a flash of Ned looking out Gibbs' back door at Tony and Gibbs laying together under the stars that spring. He'd very drunkenly told Elly that he wanted that; that he wanted what they had. And now they'd found it together. He looked at Sommers with a sudden understanding.

"One day, my friend. One day."

********WDYG?********

Tony and Jethro were in the back of a military cargo plane with a group of mismatched personnel. There were a couple of Navy Seamen, an Army Sergeant, and a Marine Corporal. They were all strapped down and Tony felt like the oddball out. They'd dressed for the environment to the best of their abilities, but where Jethro fit in wearing jeans, t-shirt and windbreaker, Tony was in jeans, t-shirt and a sweater that didn't really fit the motif of their fellow passengers. He'd stolen Jethro's NCIS hat earlier. It was tattered, but he felt protected from bewildered glances of the people around him by it. The saving grace was that they had plenty of leg room to spread out.

Jethro was dozing next to him and Tony shuffled in his bag for a puzzle book to work on. He was driving himself crazy thinking about what was going on back in the States with their teams. He tried to distract himself by thinking of Amira, but that didn't help either. Her breakdown when they told her that they were coming home was as disheartening as the tantrum she'd thrown the night before. She had cried in Sierra's arms and wouldn't talk to them anymore. Sierra had texted them afterwards and explained that Amira thought she was in trouble. She'd looked so broken and sad thinking that was why they were coming home that both Tony and Jethro had a hard time sleeping.

A couple of hours into their flight, a man came from near the cockpit with a pair of headphones on with a mic. He stopped in front of them and confirmed who they were.

"Agent Gibbs?" he asked.

Tony answered, "Which one?" but Jethro simply nodded.

"Uh, I guess both of you? I was told to tell you that your man woke up. He's gonna be okay."

"Oh, thank god," Tony said, resting his head on the wall behind him. Jethro nodded again, and ran his hand down his face. "Great news," Tony continued. "Thanks."

"No problem. Not able to return a message I'm afraid. Will have to wait until we're in Norfolk. Your director says a car will be waiting for you."

"Not a problem," Jethro said with another curt nod. The man nodded back and turned to leave.

"Needed that," Tony said with a relieved sigh.

"Me too," Jethro said.

"I bet Elly is through the roof ecstatic right now."

"That all depends on how Sommers is acting about it," Jethro said. "What we have to worry about now is whether or not the kid is going to try to go after Critten for it. We may be coming home to a whole different battle."

"You just had to bring me down," Tony said with a resigned sigh.

"Just being realistic."

"I know." Tony shook his head a little. "I have to tell you, I feel incredibly responsible for this. We knew it was going to happen, but didn't stop it. But at the same time, I would've paid good money to watch Elly wipe the smug smirk off that jackass' face. Concussion or no."

"Well, you did say there's video. We should've had Abby send it to us last night."

"Damn! Why didn't I think about that?"

"I distracted you," Jethro said with a smirk of his own.

Tony blushed a little and rubbed the back of his neck. "That you did."

"You still feeling okay about it today?" Jethro asked.

Tony stopped and looked Jethro directly in the eyes. "I'll be thinking about that for a long time and each time I do I'm going to be very okay with it."

Jethro smiled and looked around the plane to make sure no one could hear them before turning back to Tony. "Are you saying you want to do that again?"

Tony's eyes went wide. "I hadn't thought about it. Why? Do you want to?"

"Undecided," Jethro said with a shrug.

"We'll come back to this discussion another time. Right now, I need to brood a while about my team."

"I have my worries, too. Seen a lot of guys get hit with injuries like that and it does things to them."

"Yeah, I know. I mean, I know I joke about my concussion record, but I do get concerned about it. I've done the research. I don't know how I haven't had some serious repercussions already."

"Knew a guy. Got whacked with a shell fragment. Everything seemed fine at first, but he started having these mood swings that would put Diane's to shame. Thing is, he was almost 300 pounds of muscle. Would flip tables, pull down divider walls, and one day he tried to take on a Jeep. Ended up with another concussion, couldn't even remember his own name for a week no matter how many times we told him. But, the mood swings stopped. We all called him Hulk."

Tony chuckled at the last part, but turned serious again. "I hope that doesn't happen to Sommers. I mean, I'd hate to have him wake up from a coma only to have you shoot him in the bullpen."

"Nah," Jethro said. "We learned that the best thing to do with Hulk was give him his space."

"Not much space in the bullpen."

"That's what tasers are for," Jethro said with a wink.

Tony laughed openly and smiled at Jethro. "That's going to be my happy thought for the rest of the day. Watching you tase Sommers the next time he says something about our relationship."

"Probably wouldn't have to wait for long," Jethro grumbled. "Can't believe Critten wants us to give him another chance."

"Well, if it was going to be any of us that offered him an olive branch…" Tony started and then trailed of as he tilted to his head to the side with that "come on" look.

"Yeah. But I don't want it to take every person on the team kicking his ass in order to take him down enough pegs to fit in. If Critten did that much damage with one kick, I can only imagine what Ziva would do to him."

"Have you ever actually seen Ziva and Elly spar? It's terrifying. They don't hold back. It's like watching kung fu masters."

"They basically are, Tony."

"I know, but seriously! Take a few minutes to watch next time you get the chance. Well, that is if Elly is ever going to be able to bring himself to fight again."

"Ah, don't worry about him. He's a fighter. He knows the dangers. He'll fight again. Just needed to be reminded of the boundaries with those less experienced than him. Good lesson in using only the force necessary."

Tony nodded, not looking completely convinced.

"Get some rest. I imagine that we're going straight to the hospital when we get back. Should be interesting."

"Heh, yeah," Tony said. "I'm not you. I never could sleep on these tin cans."

"Could be worse," Jethro said, crossing his arms and propping his head up on the cargo netting to the left side of his head.

"Yeah, Ziva could be flying the plane. Can you imagine her flying like she drives?"

"Don't wanna," Jethro said as his eyes closed and Tony knew he was going to be on his own for a while.

********WDYG?********

Ellie woke up to the sounds of her mom cooking breakfast downstairs. Her brothers and dad were down there with her, and their voices floated up the stairs like a balm for her soul. She lay there for ten minutes just listening to their warm bantering and morning conversation while she thought.

She'd fallen asleep the night before considering the fact that the NCIS team leads were coming home early for their team members. She felt even more excited that these people would be safe to work with. The fact that they were willing to give up their honeymoon to support their people gave her hope that they would be the kind of people that could support her as she took on a new adventure like being an agent.

Reaching for her phone, Ellie yawned and stretched. Once her phone was in hand, she sat up and got into a comfortable position to check her email. She was happy to see the text icon had meant a text from Ned and not anyone from the NSA or her friends. She wasn't ready to explain to them what had happened.

Ned: _HE'S AWAKE! And he's being all weird. Like, he apologized to me and Elly and asked us if we could help him be a better man. I think it was the painkillers. We'll have to see. Thought I'd let you know. I'm going to bed. Elly is staying at the hospital with Sommers. Hope you're sleeping well._

Ellie smiled brightly. She'd been so worried that Sommers was going to blame Elly and get him in trouble. That didn't sound like Sommers was holding a grudge.

Ellie: _Awesome! That's great news! I slept well. About to go have breakfast with my family. Not sure how much longer I'm going to be here. I'm eager to get started on the next chapter of my life and leave this behind me._

She hit send and got out of bed to get dressed. She took down her hair, still slightly damp from her shower the night before, and ran her fingers through it. Five minutes later she was dressed in jeans, a tank, and a flannel shirt. The smells from the kitchen drew her downstairs, but halfway there she realized that the conversation had grown to quiet tones without her realizing it. She stopped on the stairs to listen, and she heard her brother John talking fervently in a quiet voice.

"She's only going to fight you if you try to suggest that. If it's what she wants, what she really wants, she's going to do it. You know Ellie. If it's an emotionally induced idea, her rational side will take over when it's time, and she'll do what's right for her. You gotta let her work it out on her own."

"But she's going to get herself killed!" George said in a register that would've been a shout if they weren't intentionally being hushed so she didn't hear. "She's not thinking straight! Mom, come on, back me up here!"

"She had applied before joining the NSA," their mother said. "If this is what she wants to do, if this is where she feels like she needs to be, then she should do it. I agree with John and your father. Give her the space and time to do what she needs to do for her."

"You can't tell me that you're not worried about this," Robbie said.

"I worry about every single one of you every single day," her mom said. "And of course, it's a dangerous field, so I'll worry more. But we thought the job she was doing was safe, and look at what happened to her."

John took the argument back up. "She's not the type to just sit back and let things happen to her. She's going to need the confidence being an agent will give her. They'll train her to fight, to protect herself, and she'll protect others in the meantime. And it sounds like these people have her back. If Ellie trusts them, then I trust them,"

Ellie smiled at that. Her brothers were all protective of her, but John was the rational one among them. He'd keep her parents on her side and her other brothers would come around. It was going to be okay. She bounded down the stairs after that, intentionally making noise. She didn't want to confront this argument. She wasn't going to change any minds today. It would take time for that.

The obvious scurry of everyone going back to what they were previously doing was ignored in favor of pouring a cup of coffee. Good mornings came up from around the room and she greeted them back. She poured her coffee and inhaled over the cup deeply. The very scent brought her senses to life and cleared her head.

"So, what's on the agenda today?" she asked the awkwardly quiet room as she moved to sit at her place at the table.

"Thought maybe you and I could spend some time together," her mom said. "Go riding, or go into town and shop a little. What are you up for?"

"Both are tempting. Maybe go into town and then do a late ride after dinner when it's cooler?"

"Smart thinking," her dad said, raising his coffee cup to her, then looked at his wife. "All your doing, dear." Her mom laughed while Ellie smiled and accepted a kiss from her dad to the top of the head with contently closed eyes.

"What are you guys going to do?" Ellie asked the guys at the table.

"Silo prep," George answered. "Grain will be coming in sooner than we can imagine."

"Next Friday," her dad confirmed.

"Will you still be here then?" Robbie asked.

"No," Ellie said thoughtfully. "I think I'm going to head back this weekend. I have some people coming in from out of town that I want to meet. I think this weekend would be the best time to do that. Plus, I need to get started on looking for a new apartment. I can't keep staying in the one Jake and I had together."

"More smart thinking," her dad said, giving her an understandingly sad smile. She gave him one back.

"You know, after the harvest, once everything is packed up, there's three weeks before we start shipping it out. We could come help you move. You know, if you wanted some help," George offered.

Ellie perked up. "That could be very helpful if you think you could. It's a really long drive just to move boxes. If you have the time, I could show you around D.C. You know, give you the tour. Hit some museums, monuments, the highlights. Make it worth the trip."

"Totally!" Robbie said excitedly. "I wanna see the art museum."

"I could be down for that," John said.

"Your father and I are going to be needed here, but you boys should go," their mom said.

"Sounds like we're going for a road trip!" George said, smacking the table as he sat down at it.

John high fived Ellie who smiled at her dad. Their mom turned to sit platters of pancakes, eggs and bacon on the table.

"Someone grab the butter. Breakfast is ready,"

********WDYG?********

Sierra sat on the couch with Amira tucked into her side asleep. The little girl had been a wreck when Tony and Jethro had told them that they were coming home. They were all really confused when she reacted so vehemently against the idea after begging for their return the night before that. She was grateful Amira opened up to her about why she was so upset, but then she'd cried herself to sleep.

This morning the little girl was a zombie. After eating a PopTart and drinking some juice she'd come into the living room and turned on the TV without even asking. Sierra let it slide, and after cleaning up from breakfast she joined her. It only took a few minutes for the sounds of sleep to be heard next to her. Sierra turned the TV off and opened a book on her phone to prep for classes while Amira slept off her emotional hangover.

She was startled by the chime that indicated she had a text. She immediately turned the sound down to keep Amira from waking up and opened the message.

Elly: _I'm heading home. Sommers' dad just got here and I'm going to give them some time together. I'll sleep until 5 and then I'm going to meet the Gibbses at the hospital._

Sierra: _Is he doing okay? Does his dad seem like a cool guy?_

Elly: _Sommers is doing fine, just in a lot of pain right now. His dad seems a little distant, but not too bad. Kinda worried about something I heard while walking out. I think his dad is going to blame me hardcore for the incident._

Sierra: _OH, that blows._

Elly: _Yeah. Hopefully he doesn't change Sommers' mind about coming down on me. I think it'll be okay though._

Sierra: _From what you said about Sommers last night, I'm sure everything will be fine._

Elly: _I really hope so. This talk with his dad could go 1 of 2 ways. Either he connects w/his dad on a deeper level and he moves forward with his plan to be a better man. OR. And I really hope this doesn't happen, but his dad could tell him to toughen up and that he's a wuss for getting his ass kicked and that he's disappointed in him. Which will make him tailspin back into that personality he (and we) hates._

Sierra: _Not necessarily! He could tell his dad what he's really feeling if he says he's a wuss. He could tell him off._

Elly: _I really don't want to see that happen. He's struggling with feeling lonely. Cutting ties w/his family wouldn't help things any._

Sierra: _He wouldn't have to cut ties, but it would be helpful to get it all out in the open and talk about how he's felt. We'll just have to wait and see. No sense in driving yourself crazy over it. Get some sleep_

Sierra put down her phone and looked at the sleeping girl next to her. All of this talk about sleep was making her want a nap. She gently moved Amira and shifted until she was laying on the couch with Amira laying on her. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep as well.

********WDYG?********

Sommers was still in shock that his dad was sitting next to him. He'd just explained what had happened during the fight to him, and his dad was pissed.

"Someone needs to kick that kid's ass! I'll show him how it's done."

That protective exclamation both terrified and enheartened him. His dad had never been protective like that over him. Then again, he'd never been in the hospital like this. He felt like he had to come clean though before his dad took off and chased Elly down in the parking lot, if for no other reason than he knew that would end with his dad in a bed right next to his.

"Dad, it's cool. I'm not mad at all. I deserved it. Honestly. I've been a total jerk lately. For a long time really. I'm not… I'm not good with that. This was the wake up call I needed. And he didn't intend to do this kind of damage. If nothing else, it's taught me that I need to work on my fighting skills."

His dad got really quiet for a minute and stared at him. "What do your superiors have to say about this?" he asked quietly, but still angrily.

"My director is coming by today to check on me apparently. I don't know how he feels about it. My boss is coming back early from his honeymoon just to make sure I'm okay. It doesn't matter though. I'm okay with it. I mean, it hurts like a bitch, but putting me in the hospital was an accident. If I were Elly and I had the chance to give me a beat down, I probably would've done it, too. I mean it, Dad. I've been a royal prick. I'm just… I'm not me lately."

"Your boss is coming back from his honeymoon? If I were him I'd be looking for someone's head on a platter!"

"Well, I think Gibbs wanted my head on a platter before he left, so I guess this makes us even."

"Gibbs your boss?"

"Yeah."

"Why'd he want your head on a platter? What did you do?"

Sommers took a deep breath and let it out, but he swallowed and then started the story about what he'd said in the conference room.

"Kyle, you didn't."

Sommers nodded, sucking on his top lip in a shameful grimace. "Yeah… I did. Like I said, I've been an asshole lately."

"I didn't raise you to be a bigot! Why would you…? I don't understand!"

"I'm not!" Sommers shouted. "I don't care that they're dudes! I just! I don't know!"

"You've gotta know something! You can't talk to your superiors that way! That's completely inexcusable! I can't believe you'd do something like that!"

Kyle closed his eyes in pain. The shouting had his head pounding, and he held up his hand in a motion to stop and rubbed his temple with the other one.

"Damn." His dad shook his head. They sat in silence for a long minute, but Kyle didn't open his eyes. They were full of tears from pain and the thoughts running a marathon through his head.

"I'm just so fucking lonely," he whispered, shaking his head as the tears slipped out. "And these people are so fucking happy together and it just makes me sick with jealousy."

His dad's head tilted to the side and he looked at him with sad eyes. "Oh, Kyle."

Sommers still didn't open his eyes though. He didn't have the courage to if he was going to get this all out.

"I've been such a dick to everyone for years because I've been so unhappy, but it's all come to a head here. I hate myself, and it doesn't surprise me that everyone else hates me, too."

"No one hates you, Kyle," his dad said softly.

Sommers finally opened his eyes and looked directly into his dad's through his tears. "Yes, they do. And I deserve it."

"Why do you keep saying that? What have you done that's so horrible?"

Sommers laughed darkly. "Oh! Where to begin?" He rested his head back on the bed but looked at the ceiling as he thought about his many indiscretions. "How about being an arrogant asshole that only thinks about himself? I keep playing over the past few weeks, and I realized that every time I opened my mouth it was to either make a sarcastic comment or complain. I've sabotaged the relationships of women I wanted to date to make them available for me. I've done things I'm really not proud of when I've been rejected. I just don't treat people right, Dad. Not right at all. And now I've got these great people around me and I've treated them like they're idiots. Like they're the weak ones, but that's not true. I'm the weak one."

"Just because you got your ass handed to you doesn't mean you're weak," his dad tried to interject, but Sommers shook his head.

"No, Dad. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm weak in so many other ways. And I just don't know how I'm going to fix it. My team and Elly said they'd help me though. I asked them to, and they said they'd fix it for me so that the boss isn't mad at me anymore, and that they'd help me fit in. That they'd help me change."

There was yet another long pause. "Well," his dad started, then sat back and stared at him until he stared back. "Sounds like you're manning up about it."

Sommers wasn't expecting that.

"Manning up and setting things straight. I'm proud of you."

Sommers felt like he'd been punched in the chest with those words. He couldn't remember his dad ever saying he was proud of him. He'd acted like it when he became an agent, but he'd never said it. He wasn't sure of what to do or say, but before he could figure it out a sob escaped from his chest.

"You okay? You need me to get the nurse?" his dad asked frantically, suddenly very afraid of the way his son was reacting.

Sommers shook his head. "No, no. Just can't believe it took a coma and hole in my brain to finally make you proud of me," he said with another dark laugh.

"I'm not proud of you because you have a damn hole in your head, Kyle! I'm proud of you because you're admitting that you're not the best you can be and you're going to work on trying to be better! That's what a real man does- tries to be the best he can be. If you're not being your best self, you'd better be working on being your best self. And that's what you're doing."

Kyle nodded and wiped at his eyes, then reached for the tissues next to him. He blew his nose and took a deep breath.

"I think whatever version of myself I am right now needs to sleep some," he said with a wavering voice.

His dad nodded, a look of concern back on his face. "Get some rest. I'm going to go get checked into the hotel and I'll be back in a couple of hours. What can I bring you?"

"Maybe something to eat? Food here sucks. Elly smuggled me a Snickers earlier, but breakfast was gross."

"What's around here to eat?"

"All sorts of stuff. Just nothing spicy. I can't get up to use the bathroom right now and yeah."

His dad nodded with a wince. "Understood. I'll be back by 1300."

"Thanks, Dad." His dad turned to walk out the door, but Sommers called after him. "Hey, Dad?" He turned to look at him, his hand on the doorframe. "Thanks for being here."

His dad nodded and left him alone with a kaleidoscope of thoughts and emotions he knew he didn't have a hope at figuring out. Instead he pressed the button for the nurse. He wanted some painkillers and some sleep. He'd figure it all out when he didn't feel like he had a hole in his head.

********WDYG?********

Rise: _Hey birthday boy! You still coming tomorrow?_

When Elly woke up from his rather long nap he found the text from Rise he'd been afraid of. He wanted to follow through with his birthday plans so bad, but at the same time, he felt like he wasn't going to enjoy himself if Sommers was still in the hospital. However, now that Sommers' dad was in town it might be better if he stayed away from the hospital.

Elly: _Hopefully. Got a coworker in the hospital._

Elly: _Okay. I kinda put a coworker in the hospital. Training accident._

Elly: _I could really use a night out, and I'm totally hoping we can still do this, but I gotta see how he's doing tonight before I commit._

Rise: _Dude! I totally understand! That's gotta have you feeling some kinda way. Is he okay?_

Elly winced.

Elly: _Not really. I fractured his skull and he had to have a hole drilled in his head to let fluid out. He was in a coma for a while and everything. I feel like shit._

Rise: _Aw man! That's real! I'm sorry. So totally understand if you can't be here tomorrow. But if you can, I'd still love to have you. That cutie of yours too._

That made Elly smile. He'd figured out that Rise had a little bit of a crush on both he and Ned. He'd told Ned, and the confidently fearless reaction he'd gotten out of him was so hot that they were naked for hours afterwards. He tried not to think about it as he poured a bowl of cereal. He didn't have time for that, and when he really thought about it, he couldn't remember the last time he'd had an orgasm without Ned in the same room.

He smirked to himself. It just wouldn't be the same without him now. He looked down at the engagement band on his finger and the smirk turned into a fond smile. He was hoping that they'd have some time to focus on the wedding this week, but it had been so busy and hectic that he hadn't given it a moment's thought. Not to mention the thought of moving in together and buying a house was taking up the rare moments of free time he had.

The cereal crunched in his mouth as he thought about that house they'd seen online that was so freaking perfect. He knew they weren't going to find anything like that in their price range. They'd have to do the starter home thing, and work their way up from there. He pulled his phone out and pulled up the realty site. It didn't take long to find, and he practically drooled over the photos as he scrolled through them again.

The screen changed on his phone and he saw an incoming call from his brother. He was kind of surprised by it, but answered.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked.

"Nothing much. Just calling to check on how you're doing." Eric sounded relaxed, and that boded well for the conversation, so Elly was honest.

"I'm scrolling through the photos of this freaking amazing house we found but can't afford before I head to the hospital."

"Hold up. Why the hospital?"

Elly sighed and told him the story about what had happened.

"Damn, Eli. I'm glad he's going to be okay! That could've really screwed you."

"Yeah, I know. Thankfully it's turning out ten times better than I could've imagined so far, but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"I would be, too. I mean, you put a dude in a coma!"

"He's not in it anymore!" Elly said with a sheepish blush rising up his neck to his cheeks. "It's going to be okay."

"Alright. If you say so. So, tell me about this house you're looking at."

"I'll just send you the link. Hold on." Elly put the phone on speaker and texted Eric the link. He could hear Eric's phone vibrate when the message came through a few seconds later.

"Hold on. Let me pull this up," Eric said, now obviously on speaker. Thirty seconds later Elly could hear a "Hmm…" come through the line. "That's a really nice house, but it's kinda big for you."

"Well," Elly started, chewing his bottom lip as he decided if he wanted to share this with Eric. He shrugged. He'd find out eventually, right? "We're hoping to adopt in the future, and we wanted to find a house big enough for a family."

"Seriously?!" Eric said excitedly. "You wanna have kids?"

"Yeah," Elly said with a smile. He felt excitement bubbling in himself at Eric's tone.

"Dude, Carolyn is going to be so freaking psyched about that!"

"You think?" Elly asked, feeling sheepish again.

"Definitely! She's going to be the proudest grandma ever! You've got to tell her about that. I bet it would make her _life_!"

"Maybe after everything around here settles down I'll call her and talk to her about it. I need to get going to the hospital though. Call me later?"

"Sure. Just wanted to tell you happy birthday before anyone else did." Elly laughed at the mischief in Eric's voice.

"Thanks, bro. Gotta go."

"See ya."

Elly hung up with a shake of his head. He grabbed his jacket and headed for the door with a smile on his face. He was really glad that he and Eric were connecting. And the thought of Carolyn being excited about being a grandma made him warm inside. He texted Ned about the conversation as he headed downstairs towards his car.

Ned: _That's really sweet! I wanna be in the room when you tell her. I bet I'll be able to hear the squeals through the phone from across the room._

Elly: _Probably. I just don't want to get her hopes set on it to the point that she rushes us. I want us to take our own time. I think we're going fast enough, ya know?_

Ned: _I totally get that. I didn't mind Greg figuring it out earlier, but I know he's going to be chill about it. I don't know Carolyn well enough to know how she'd react._

Elly: _She'd mean well, but… yanno._

Ned: _Yeah. I'm heading towards the parking garage. You on the way to the hospital?_

Elly: _Getting in my car right now. See you there. Xx_

Ned: _See you soon. Love you. X_

********WDYG?********

Tony was exhausted by the time he got out of the car in front of the airport garage. He was glad Jethro had slept well on the plane because he was going to need to drive. Tony napped from Norfolk, but it had left him brain fuzzy.

They thanked their driver and headed for the garage, wheeling their luggage with them. Tony yawned loudly and Jethro glanced at him. "We're stopping for coffee."

"Thank god," Tony said. They got on the elevator to take them up to the level where they'd left their car parked. "I can't believe we have to go see Sommers before we go see our daughter."

"I don't want to have to leave Amira again after we get home. I think us leaving again immediately after getting there would cause problems."

"I totally agree, but the last person I want to see right now after that flight and leaving my honeymoon early is Kyle Sommers."

"Yeah, me too, but our teams will probably be there. Should make up for it."

Tony smiled as he lifted his suitcase to put it in the trunk. "It will be nice to see the guys. Gotta make sure Elly's okay."

"There ya go," Jethro encouraged and got in on the driver's side.

It didn't take long to stop for coffee and get to the hospital. They made their way up to the room that Elly had told them Sommers had been moved to. They could tell they were getting close because of all the voices they heard. Tony and Jethro looked at each other and both couldn't help the smile that broke out on their faces.

They walked into the room and everyone looked up. There was a cacophony of "Gibbs! Tony! Boss!" from around the room in various tones and pitches. The room was packed with both teams and Jimmy and Abby, who immediately ran up and wrapped the two men in a group hug.

"Hey Abs," Jethro said while Tony said, "Hi Abby."

"We're so glad you're home!" she announced for everyone.

"Here, here!" Elly said, smiling at Tony.

"We're glad to see all of you," Tony said. "But I think we need to have a talk with Sommers and Elly."

"Say no more," Greg said. "I've gotta get home to Tiff anyway." He got up from his seat on the windowsill and headed for the door.

"Oh, did you find out if she is okay with you coming to dinner Sunday evening?" Ziva asked him as they moved together towards the door.

"We're going to have to wait to see how she's feeling. We have her friend coming in from out of town to help her tomorrow, so I'm thinking it should be okay, but I can't stay out late."

"Dinner?" Tony asked.

"Yeah," Tim said, stopping in front of them on the way out. "Ziva invited us out to Dion's Sunday night to recover from this week. You guys free?"

The two glanced at each other. "Shouldn't be a problem. Sounds good," Jethro answered for them.

"Great," Abby said, leading Jimmy past them. "We'll be in the lobby when you guys are done."

"We'll be out in a bit," Jethro assured her.

Ned passed the two on Tony's side. "Glad you're home, Boss," he said. Tony reached up and grasped his shoulder for a moment and gave him a smile.

Finally, the room was down to Sommers, who looked pale as a ghost and terrified in the bed, and Elly who looked sheepish and shamefaced as he thought about what they were about to talk about.

"How ya feeling, Sommers?" Jethro asked, coming closer to the bed and pulling a chair up next to him.

"Like hell," he answered honestly.

"To be expected," Tony assured, sitting in the chair next to Elly on the opposite side of the bed. He reached and gave him a shoulder squeeze, too. "How are you feeling?" he asked Elly.

"Like shit."

"Okay, so we've got hell and shit," Tony joked. "But let's talk about this and see what we can do to fix it."

"I-" Sommers started, then cleared his throat and tried to sit up a little straighter. "Can I start?" He said it with a respectful tone that neither leader was used to hearing from him, and so Jethro nodded at him. "I am so, so sorry about what I said the other day in the conference room. I've had a lot of time to think, and I think the reason I've been such a jerk is that your teams, and you, are all just so happy, and I'm really not. I've been bitter and jealous, and I've been a total asshole, and I'm really sorry."

"What made you realize this?" Jethro asked.

"Well, part of it was the royal ass kicking Critten gave me." He dipped his head in a bow towards Elly who declined his head humbly in return. "He called me on my shit, and I needed someone to. I…" He looked nervously at Elly, who nodded encouragingly at him. He looked back to Jethro and swallowed. "I never really wanted to be an agent. I'd wanted to go into forensics, but when I told my dad I was going to study criminal justice, he got really excited thinking I wanted to be a cop, and I just… I wanted to make him proud. So… I followed a path that led me here. And I'm not happy. I haven't been happy for a long time. And I've been taking it out on everyone around me while trying to pretend that I'm happy doing this when I'm not."

"Does that mean you're resigning?" Tony asked calmly.

Sommers shook his head no slightly. "No, not yet."

"Why not?" Jethro asked.

"Well, that's the other thing. I had these dreams in the coma. A lot of them really sucked, you know. They were memories of the worst of me, and I can still see them clear as day. But I also had some good dreams, where I was a part of this team and that I was happy. When I woke up, and Elly was still here with me, and the teams were all waiting to see me, I realized that I have people here that care about me, even though I've been a total prick. And I-" His voice cracked and he swallowed hard as his eyes misted over. He blinked back the tears and took a deep breath, but his voice was squeaky as it came out. "I really need that. People, that is. I need someone to be together with. If that makes sense."

"And we're all committed to helping him be better," Elly said, looking between the three other men and resting on Jethro. "All of us. He asked us to help him be a better person, and we're dedicated to making that happen."

Jethro nodded slightly and looked back at Sommers. "That's a good short term solution, but what about long term plans? You can't be happy in this career if it's not what you really want to do. It takes too much dedication and energy. If you're not careful it can suck the life out of you. What's the plan?"

"I haven't figured that out yet. I was hoping you could help me." His eyes were locked on Jethro's, and the older man saw honesty there where he'd only seen bitter sarcasm before. He knew he was looking at a different man than he left.

"What would it take for you to get your schooling for forensics?" he asked him.

Sommers' eyes lit up involuntarily. "I don't know."

"You need to go back to school and finish it," Tony said.

"How can I do that and still be an agent?" he asked.

"You may not be able to," Jethro said.

"But with how many courses you can do online now, I wouldn't be surprised if you could get away with it," Tony suggested. "And if you really suck up to Abby, she could probably help you."

Jethro chuffed a laugh and gave a smirk to Tony. "Yeah, sure."

"I was thinking the same thing," Elly said. "I know she won't take an assistant, but she might be willing to take a student, at least occasionally. Even Ducky suggested it." He looked at Sommers. "He's right though. You'd have to _really_ suck up to her. Forgiveness doesn't come easy with Abby."

"I'd have time to win her over anyway, because it would be at least a semester before I have any questions to take to her. I'd have to play catch up." Sommers was brighter than any of them had ever seen him. "That would be amazing," he said softly, his voice radiating awe. They were all quiet for a minute. "I can… I can picture this whole different life, ya know? One where I don't hate myself. But I can't get there from out there. I need to be here to do it."

Jethro nodded slowly. "Okay. We'll give it a try. But you're on probation. You do one damn thing to step out of line, and I'll send you packing."

Sommers nodded emphatically, and then winced as he reached for the back of his head. He grimaced and then took a deep breath. "Sorry. I've got a hole in my head."

"We've heard," Tony said. "So, about that." The attention turned to Elly.

"I've felt like shit since he went unconscious. I don't know what else I can say or do, but tell me and I'll do it."

"We're not going to do anything to you," Tony said.

"Really? But… ya know… I gave a teammate a concussion. I, ya know, _cracked his skull open_. You've gotta do something." Elly stared at them in disbelief.

"Why?" Sommers asked. "It's my head, not theirs, and I'm not doing anything about it. Hell, when I'm not hurting anymore, I'll be grateful. My dad is kinda pissed at you, but I've called off the dogs so to speak. After all, I don't want you to put my dad in here next to me, and I have no doubts that would happen."

"Really?" Elly asked, feeling both defeated and relieved.

"Man, I'm not going to let them do anything to you. I needed this."

"We're not going to let anything happen to you either," Tony said. "You're a good man, Elly Critten. Your guilty conscience is enough of a punishment."

"We're going to have to work on getting you to pull your strength though. You and Ziva will be spending some time sparring until she says you're a master at it," Jethro added. "This can't happen to a perp."

Elly swallowed and nodded. "That's totally fair. Getting my ass beat by Ziva is a definite fair trade."

All of them laughed and Elly turned pink.

"Ow," Sommers said, wincing through a chuckle. "Laughing definitely makes my head hurt. I think it's time for more painkillers."

"And I think it's time we get home and see our daughter," Tony said.

"Agreed," Jethro said. "When they springing you?" he asked Sommers.

"Saturday. I've got to be under observation for another 48 hours or so, and then I have to come back next week to get the dressing changed twice and make sure my head is healing correctly."

"I volunteered to take him home and to his appointments next week. Ducky said he can't come back to work for at least another week."

"Sounds good. Let us know if anything changes," Tony said.

"Will do," Elly said. He and Sommers watched them leave the room, and Elly turned to Sommers who fell back on the bed with a smile and a sigh.

"Holy shit. That couldn't have gone better," Sommers said, looking at Elly. "Thank you."

"Nothing to thank me for. You've got a hell of a road ahead of you. Get ready."


End file.
